


Horse

by AuntyA



Series: Xiàngqí -Chinese Chess [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Fantasy, Fortune Telling, Hong Kong, Police Procedural
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-04
Updated: 2016-11-29
Packaged: 2018-04-17 03:35:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 25
Words: 52,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4650741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuntyA/pseuds/AuntyA
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ma is having sleep issues and it's affecting his work.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ma (馬)

Ma kicked the vending machine with one booted foot. Nothing happened. Ma pushed his hat up and scratched the back of his head. Dang. He had lost his 6 dollars, again. The button was lit up but nothing happened when he picked his canned coffee drink. He smacked the button one more time for luck. Nothing happened.

He should know better by now than to try these stupid machines for a drink or a snack every day. He checked his pockets for more coins. He found a couple more dollars in one pocket and added it to the change in his hand.

He heard another driver snicker at him from the break room couch.

“Hey Ma, if you are going to the 7-11 can you get me something too? I don't want to lose my money here. I’ll lose it at mahjong pretty easily instead.”

“Shut up man. I’ll get you something. When are they gonna put up a sign saying these machines are broken, anyway?” He said irritatedly.

“Ma you’re the only one in the driving pool stupid enough to keep putting money in that machine. Get me a coffee and a noodle dish? Something with meat.”

The driver lazily held out a fat fist clutching some dollars. Ma walked over to the couch and took the money from the fat man.

“Ok Chee-Ming. No problem. I'll go right now. How long are you here?”

The fat man scratched his belly. “I’m on a split shift. I’m waiting here until 11. Nothing lined up at the moment. You?”

“I think I’m on shift at 2. I was going to come in to have a nap but you’re already on the couch.”

“That my friend is the wonders of seniority. When you have worked here for as long as I have, you can get the couch. Ma go get my noodles and come back. You look tired out. You should get a coffee while you’re out. You need to wake up.” The fat man waved his hand at Ma, shooing him out of the room.

“Yes sir.” Ma said and bowed exaggeratedly. He turned and left the driver’s break room, heading out to the street. He hadn’t exactly lied about his shift starting later, he just didn’t have anyone lined up for today. Working in the driver pool for the Metropolitan police was often incredibly boring.

He had wanted to lie down on the couch for a bit before work. The break room couch was a shapeless piece of junk. The cushions had lost almost all their stuffing and the springs creaked and groaned when any weight was put on it. At one time it must have been quite fancy but the drivers had worn it down.

Ma found the couch comfortable enough to fall asleep on. He had wanted to see if he had those same dreams when he slept anywhere that wasn’t his own bed. He wouldn’t get that chance today.

Ma liked to get out into and around the neighbourhood when he didn’t have any car shifts booked. He hoped he could make it out of headquarters without getting caught. He straightened his hat and headed purposefully out the front doors, nodding to one of the uniformed Sergeants on the front desk in the headquarters lobby.

Then he pushed open the heavy entrance doors, stepped outside and headed down the long concrete stairs to the street.

He walked off towards the nearest 7-11, clinking the coins in his jacket pocket and thinking idly about the Detective he drove yesterday. He wondered if he could get assigned to her on a regular basis. She seemed smart and the place she was going were interesting.

Ma was a driver in the car pool for the Metropolitan Police Department. He had passed all the screening, certification of no criminal conviction and the secondary licensing needed to be hired. He liked the driving. But the shifts were long and often involved waiting.

Waiting to pick up. Waiting to be assigned a car. Waiting for the client to be finished with their meeting or lunch. Waiting for the car to be cleaned. Waiting for the car to be washed.

He didn’t always like waiting in the driver break room between his assignments. Some of his colleagues were jerks. Stupid jerks. Although some of the clients they drove were women, there were no women drivers. Ma found that the tone in the break room a bit rough. Some of the drivers were bullies. And there was rarely any food.

The break room had a rice cooker, broken. It had a vending machine, broken. The boiling water tap mostly worked but helpfully there were no mugs, bowls or spoons. The worn couch was almost always occupied by some more senior driver having a nap.

The table often had someone brushing off their hat or playing cards. Sometimes mahjong. Some drivers would smoke, filling overflowing ashtrays sitting near the window. Others picked their teeth while they waited.

Ma mostly sat on folding chairs off to the side by the window with the other new guys. They also joked around and gossiped about their work and women. Ma just sat and listened. He napped or daydreamed. He found he could sleep sitting up. He would wake up with a start when his phone buzzed with his assignment. Every time.

If it was too hot, the drivers would sit in the break room in their undershirts so they didn’t sweat through their uniform. They would hang their shirts by the window in front of the worn fan turning back and forth . The light blue shirts fluttered on hangers from the top of the window frame or from the backs of chairs.

Lately Ma had been going out to get food and drinks for whoever was in the break room. He’d take the orders, collect the money and then head out to the OK or 7-11 and fetch the snacks. He didn’t mind being the errand boy. If he wasn’t in the break room then he couldn't be assigned a car. He had found a cheap bicycle and chained it up down the block on a side street.

If he missed out on going on assignments maybe he could try and get the couch for a nap. He wasn’t sleeping so great at home. His apartment was tiny and airless. The neighbourhood was noisy with construction and the hot air was thick with dust. He wasn’t sure why he was having sleeping problems, as it wasn’t insomnia. It was after he did sleep he woke up exhausted.

If he just got enough exercise maybe he would sleep better. He had been having very vivid dreams when he slept but he couldn’t quite remember them exactly. Sometimes when he pedaled to the convenience store on his snack run, he would try to recall what he had been dreaming about. He had a vague sense that the dreams were related or maybe it was just all the same dream. Whatever he was dreaming about, he always woke up tired. Weary in his bones.

He had locked up the bike and went into the blissful air conditioning of the 7-11. he paused briefly in front of the magazine display, his eye caught by a magazine of western-style interior decoration. The large pale empty rooms on the cover looked so restful and luxurious to him.

His own apartment was basically one room with a tiny bathroom and a counter for a kitchen. He had one large but barred window in the room that he had to keep open for any hope of getting air in the heat. Mostly he just lay flat on his bed, sticky and hot, unable to sleep well. He couldn’t leave the barred screen door open to the apartment hall open for a cross draft. Even if the barred door was locked, leaving the inside door open wasn’t a good idea. Ma didn't really know his neighbors in the old shitty building. And there hadn't ever been a breeze in the years he had lived there.

Ma didn’t live in a great area but it wasn’t too bad. He had no family here so it was less worry. He had found himself a girlfriend he was avoiding at the moment. She worked in headquarters in communications and business development. The cops had business development how very optimistic he thought.

Ma's girlfriend was nice but pushy. And she talked. The other drivers had tried to tease him when he had first started to date Shi but Ma simply wouldn't respond to their jibes. Then the teasing stopped after a while.

Shi was too low in the hierarchy for them to drive her thank the gods. But everyone knew his business immediately. As soon as he had asked her out for coffee all the drivers had known. No secrets in the break room.

She had a wonderful apartment that had room for two bedrooms, a living room and a tv, but she lived with an older auntie who hated him. Her apartment wasn’t an option at the moment for sleeping experiments. He wondered if he could sleep in the client car while he was waiting for something to happen.

He wanted to remember the dreams but instead found that his body ached when he woke up. His arms and legs felt stiff. As if he had been working hard, in a field or maybe running. Sitting in a car shouldn’t make you feel that way. Ma didn’t know if he needed a new job or if he needed a psychiatrist.

He found the aisle in the store with the canned coffee and then made his way to the counter to order the noodles for Chee-Ming. He got a cheap meat bun for himself. He could eat it while he biked back to Headquarters.

His phone rang while he was waiting for the noodles. As always his phone startled him when it rang in his jacket. It was his supervisor, wondering if he would take a car out. He could be back in 15 minutes. That would do. Ma forgot to ask who he was being assigned to.

Ma adjusted his hat, got Chee-Ming’s noodles and stepped back outside into the humid air. He stood in front of the 7-11 garbage bin. He looked up. He had tipped his head back to get the last bit of his coffee, his hat was slipping off and the plastic bag of Chee-ming’s food was awkwardly hanging next to him as he had left the bag around the wrist of the hand holding the can.

He saw the sliver of sky, and a flock of birds wheeling around in a large arc as they flew behind the office towers and apartment blocks. He wondered what had set them off. He normally never saw birds in the sky, only some sad dirty pigeons huddled on a window ledge. But never flying.

Ma walked back over to his bike, looping the chain around his neck as he unlocked. He rode back to the police building, plastic bags hanging from the handlebars bumping against his legs as he pedaled the bike slowly, no hands, chewing the last bits of his gristly pork bun.

+++

Ma dropped the plastic 7-11 bag on the table, nodding to Chee-ming. The portly man got up from the couch happily, rubbing his hands together.

“You got assigned to Pao. Have fun.” He slid the bag towards where he was sitting looking in the bag at what Ma had brought back and grabbing the chopsticks and sauce packets.

The room was now more crowded with drivers, coming off assignments and waiting for new ones. A new guy had commandeered the couch.

“Does the horse have anything to say today?” A harsh voice called out at him. One of the other older drivers turned and smiled at him thinly.

“No.” Ma responded, looking for the adjutant with the clipboard.  The laughter continued around him as he made his way back out to the hall. He could hear Chee-ming saying something, making some joke about him. He had his noodles. He should be happy with the errand boy.

Ma adjusted his hat and tugged lightly on the hem of his jacket. He needed to check in to get his assignment. He was interested in Pao. She went to meetings, not just crime scenes. Also press conferences. He might run in to Shi there and he could figure out if auntie was going on any overnight visits in the next little while.

He worked his way through the crowded hall in front of the break room. He could see the adjutant down the hallway, tall and gangly, clutching his clipboard.

“Ma.” The adjutant didn’t have to raise his voice for Ma to hear him.

“Yes sir, I am here.”

The uniformed man looked down at the listing. “I have you down for a pickup in front. 12:35. You’ve had her before. Detective Pao.” He paused. “Don’t screw it up Ma. She could use you on a regular basis and then you’d get more assignments. You’re picking her up from the front driveway. Then going to Commercial and Technology. You know where you are going?”

Ma nodded. He signed off the clipboard where his name was listed and handed it back. “Yes sir.” He bowed and turned on his heel. Ma looked down at his hands. He headed off to the drivers’ washroom. He had gotten dirt under his nails somehow.

Later as he was driving carefully out of the clammy underground driver pool parking area up the tight spiral ramp, he noticed that the knuckle of his thumb had a thin line of brown dust in the creases.  He wiped the back of his hand on his pants.

He wondered where Pao was going today. The break room had been relatively quiet with work related gossip. More idle chatter about sex and food than work.

He pulled up to headquarter’s front driveway with a few minutes to spare.

+++++

Ma was waiting washed, brushed and ready in the driveway at the front of the building. Holding his hat in his hand, he looked down at his boot. Dust. Strange. He stood awkwardly on one leg and brushed the toe of his boot on the back of his pant leg.

“Ma? You are Ma?” A woman’s voice asked him from the concrete stairs.

“Yes ma’am.” He straightened up. “I’ve driven you before once.”

“Ah. All you driver look the same from behind. The only thing different is the size of your necks.”

Pao was a slight woman dressed in pants and a jacket. Not in uniform. She had a purse and a briefcase . She walked towards the car and opened the door. She got in and closed the door.

Ma stood there a bit stunned. Normally he opened the door and took the briefcases, then handed them back in the car and closed the door.

“Driver? Are you okay? Let’s go.”

Paos voice came from the back seat.

Ma said startled, “Sure ma’am. No problem ma’am.” And opened the car door for himself.

“Air conditioning would be good.” Pao was closing her window.

“Certainly ma’am.” He leaned forward and turned on the air conditioning.

“You know where you are going?”

“Yes ma’am.” Ma concentrated on the road. He didn’t want to get caught looking at her in the rearview mirror.

He heard her shuffling papers from the briefcase. She was working on her phone he thought. Texting. He drove.

He thought he heard her stop working in the back seat.

“Hey driver?”

“Yes ma’am?”

“What’s your name? I forgot to ask.”

“I am Ma.” He didn’t look in the rear view mirror. Was she going to ask him? Probably, it was such a worn joke.

“That’s a good name for you.”

“What do you mean ma’am?”

“You’re a driver. Like in the old days. With carts.”

Ma exhaled. She hadn’t said it. No jokes about his name. He thought he did want to be assigned to her again.

They had arrived. He slid the car into the visitor’s spot underneath the concrete fortress. He parked the car and started to get out to open Pao’s door.

But by the time he had gotten himself out of the car, Pao had already started walking away from the car towards the elevator to the offices.

He stood there, unsure of what to do next. Pao turned back to him. “Oh sorry Ma, I forgot to ask. Do you want to come back in two hours or did you want to wait in the lobby?”

Ma ducked his head and tucked his hands behind his back. “I’ll wait down here ma’am.”

“Okay. Your choice.” She turned again and walk away without a second glance.

He stayed waiting, standing by the car, until she had walked into the building. He sighed with relief and turned back to the car. He noticed a small whirl of brown dust blowing off the pale roof.

He sat down in the driver’s seat and leaned his head back. He had become overcome with tiredness. He closed his eyes. He left the door open, he had parked in an end spot, he needed the air in the underground garage.

He hear a bird call. He opened his eyes but he didn’t immediately see the dashboard. Or rather he saw reddish clay and a dusty track. Overlaid somehow on what he was seeing in front of him. It felt like he couldn’t entirely focus his vision. Like he was dreaming. He closed his eyes again willing it away.

He came back to himself when his phone rang. It startled him, buzzing in his jacket pocket. He bumped his head as he lost his balance and fell out of the car.

He stood up and checked his phone. Shi. He answered. He had hopes.

“Wei.”

“Ma? Is that you? Are you working?”

“I’m working. Are you well?”

Shi laughed, “So formal Ma. Call me later. Auntie is going to Macau this weekend. I want you to come over.”

“Sure, sure.”

Ma could see Pao walking out of the elevator. He couldn’t have overslept. He barely closed his eyes and he was still tired.

“Shi. I have to go. I’m working.”

“Call me. I love…”

Ma had hung up.


	2. Pao (炮)

Pao wasn’t sure she had what it took to be a detective. She’d been doing the job for a while. Long enough to know that she wasn’t interested in returning to the patrol group. She liked the daytime hours and no riot protection shifts. She had done her time in the trucks with helmet, baton and shield.

She liked to catch people in wrong doing. That felt good. But the monotony of getting to that point and the team she worked with sometimes brought her back down to reality with a bump. She had been finalizing a case for the Commercial unit about weighscale fraud. Textbook case of screwing with the physical scales to benefit the mainlanders bringing the freight in. It was of course a gang connection. Stacks of cash and invisible product.

She had postponed going over to the Commercial unit up to this point. Actually Pao had tried everything to avoid it. She didn't really want to see her old colleague, Ju.

She called down to the driver pool to arrange for a car. The adjutant told her fifteen minutes, she agreed and said she would meet the car out front. She hung up.

Pao wondered why Ju was asking for an in person meeting. Mulling this development over, she looked at the wall of her cubicle. She had one picture. Of a horse she had found on the internet. Someone had made a beautiful charm of a horse on a golden background, the character for horse behind the image as a watermark. It was left over from the year of the Horse that had ended a couple years ago. She didn't need to make her cubicle into a nest. Just a few things to keep her on track. A little model cannon her father had given her from a tin soldier set. A small terracotta figurine reproduction from the archeological site at Shaanxi.

Ju had been seconded to this case from the PTU. He was still needling her even after all this time. She didn't feel like it but she had to go. She sorted out the files she needed and slipped them into her briefcase. She had a quick look through her purse, phone, keys, wallet, ID, good to go. She wasn't sure why she was rechecking. Anxiety maybe.

Pao stood up, got her purse and briefcase, then wended her way thought the cubicles towards the elevator. Maybe she could get Ju to take her out for lunch.

When she got to the front door of the building she started down the concrete steps. She could see her car on the driveway, driver standing next to the car. She hadn't paid attention to the adjutant when he told her who was driving her. She thought he had named Ma who had driven her before. She hoped this was her car. She was meeting a larger team than just Ju to close off the case so she needed to be on time.

The driver seemed to be daydreaming. Pao called out "Ma, are you Ma?" as she stepped off the stairs.

He seemed to know where he was going. She sat in the backseat and reshuffled her files. She checked her phone and sent a text off to Ju to let him know she was coming,

When they arrived at the office block, she got out of the car heading for the elevator. Ma had said he would wait, that was good. She didn't want him to get too far in case he was leaving faster than the meeting was scheduled to last. Ju could be difficult to work with and she just wanted the case to be finalized so she could move on. Ma seemed like he was dependable. Something about him, she liked the way he drove. Silently. Not as obsequious as some of the other drivers she had tried. And not checking out her butt like some of the other drivers.

She would call the adjutant to request that he be assigned to her when the meeting was over. Then she could end this case on a positive note.

Ju had met her at the elevator doors and had walked her down the hall to the meeting.

"Ju, how are you?" Pao said insincerely.

"I'm delighted to see you again." Ju bowed at her, hat in hand. He smiled widely, squinting at her, his hatchet face shining.

It was only them in a conference room on the 20th floor.

"Where is everyone else Ju?" She looked around at the empty room.

He sat on the table and put his hat down, followed closely by a file.

"We didn't need the others for this. We'll go over some things for the closure of the case and then we'll go for coffee."

"Well I have the files. Where do I sign off?" Pao started to pull the documents out of her briefcase. Ju just sat there swinging his long legs.

"Pao I want to work with you. Can't you get a transfer to the task force?"

"We are working together, we just finished this case. I have other work in my case files." She tidied up the pile of files, squaring the corners and tucking in random papers.

"Exciting work like this mainlander embezzlement thing?"

"I found this case a bit boring. They didn't even try to cover up their actions and they offered you a bribe to discontinue the investigation. In the precinct."

"Well not everything is such a textbook case. The bribe was too small to accept actually."

"Ju! I'm fine where I am. Perhaps if something comes up we can be assigned together. Your Lieutenant Jiang can request it if you want it to happen."

"I'll be sure to ask him when we get something that can make use of your talents." Ju jumped off the table and started to go through the files. He gave her the file he was holding. "You'll need to initial and sign as indicated by the little tabs for the completion certification."

"Sure sure." Pao rummaged in her bag for a pen. Ju leaned down and handed her a pen with a flourish from his uniform pocket. The he pulled out a chair for her.

She looked at him and then took a seat. He sat down next to her at the table.

As they worked through the paper, she snuck a glance at her phone to check the time.

"Hey Ju, we may not get a chance to have a coffee." Pao put down his pen and rolled it over to him.

Ju caught the pen and tucked it back into his shirt pocket. He pushed back from the table and looked at her. "Well that's no good. Now what are we going to do? I'll never get coffee at this rate."

Against her will, Pao laughed.

Later in the car, Pao thought about Ju more seriously. At the academy she had wanted to be with him. She would have followed him anywhere. But then her little brother Xiang told her that she shouldn't. That there was something about Ju that wasn't to be trusted. Pao had minded his warnings. And now they were here so many years later, she didn't know if she still believed him.

Pao wasn't entirely sure if Xiang was using his psychic ability or just didn't like the guy. Xiang had always been incredibly intuitive. Her little brother had always been a problem. Now that their father had died, Pao and Xiang spent very little time together.

Xiang was difficult. He could tell the future. But he wasn’t able to see winning horses or lotto ticket numbers. He would tell you that if you chose the soup dumplings you would spill on your new white school uniform blouse. If he told you, you would still spill no matter how hard you tried to avoid it. Pao found dealing with him now just as frustrating.

So many layers. She would have to call a cell number. Leave a message. Then one of his people would call her back to arrange the timing. She wanted to just call him and have him come over. Or meet him for drinks or a meal.

She didn’t have so much to talk to him about now that they were adults. And in her job, she couldn’t spend too much time talking about his work. He was well placed in a powerful mainland gang for someone so young.

She’d try to connect with Xiang at some point before she started any new cases. She wanted him to see if Ju’s aura had improved in the intervening years since he had warned her off.

Ma interrupted her thoughts. “Ma’am? You going back to Headquarters or having a meal?”

“Is there food on the way? Could you bring me dinner maybe?”

Ma thought for a couple of beats as he waited for the light to change. “Sure. You want 7-11 or noodle cart?”

“7-11 maybe. Can you pick me something with vegetable?”

Ma didn’t answer but pulled into the parking lot. Pao got out of the car again before he could assist her in any way. He stood awkwardly next to the driver’s door.

Pao was rummaging in her purse for some cash for the food. “Can I get an Aloe drink as well? Do you know where my office is? I’m on the 24th floor in area E.” She held out a few crumpled bills to Ma.

Ma stood for a moment and then took the money in one hand.

“Not enough for the food?” Pao started to look again in her purse for more change.

Ma pushed his hat back with the other hand and scratched his head. “No. Should be fine. I’ll go now.”

“24th floor. Area E. Don't eat my lunch if you can’t find me. Call me.” Pao waved her cell phone at Ma.

Ma fished his phone out of his pocket. “May I have your number ma’am?”

“Sure. 6289 8892”

“Ah. Easy prosperity. A lucky phone number with so many good numbers.”

“You like fortune telling? You should meet my brother.” Her phone buzzed. “Look I have to go up. Call me if you get lost.”

“Sure sure ma’am.”

Pao thanked him and walked over to the door to the elevator looking at her phone. So polite that Ma. Very superstitious though.

Ma walked back to the convenience store this time. He needed to wake up. He thought the short walk might be good. It was still hot. He had left his jacket and hat in the car he was assigned to until the end of his shift today.

He looked at the food behind the glass and jingled the change in his pocket.

 

Pao’s brother was unsurprisingly working for a triad. He used his unique talents and gifts to manage various illegal activities.

She smiled wryly. He was still a liability for her, especially now. She wondered where her noodles were.

Pao realized she was hungry. She didn’t remember having lunch today. She wondered if she was asking too much from Ma to also bring her dinner.

Ma appeared by her cubicle holding out a plastic bag.

“Chopsticks and sauce inside.”

“Oh hey, thanks. Do I owe you money?”

“No ma’am.”

Ma stood there silently a beat too long.

Pao blinked. “I don't need you for anything else today. Can I see if I need you tomorrow? I may have a meeting with PTU.”

She didn’t know why she lied. She just didn’t want to get stuck with a driver she didn’t like.

“Why should I meet your brother?”

Pao looked at him surprised. “Pardon me?”

“Your brother. You mentioned your brother earlier.”

“Oh I don't know. Something about you reminds me of him a little bit.”

Pao’s voice drifted off.”

Ma nodded. Holding his hat in his hands. “Call the adjutant tomorrow if you want me. I start at 8 or earlier if you want home pickup.”

“No no. I’ll leave from here.” Pao had no idea how she would justify a driver without a case. She would have to call Ju back to try and schedule something she could have a driver for. She was making life more complicated than it needed to be. Nothing new for her.

Ma nodded and disappeared again.

Pao spun her chair back to her desk. Laptop, binder, cell phone.She could finalize her case from today and maybe leave on time for once.

She looked into her noodle container, pulling out chopsticks from the plastic bag. Then she pulled out a little plastic anime character on the top of a pen. The little man had a sharp long nose and a straw hat. She turned the toy around in her fingers. Thinking.

She sighed and placed the pen cap next to the terracotta warrior out of the way of her work. She opened up the food and stirred the noodles looking at what was in them.

Ma had guessed well. Peashoots on one side and a delicate curried noodle with no meat on the other.

It was dark outside by the time she was ready to leave her desk, The over head lighting had turned out at 8pm as a cost saving measure. She had worked by the emergency lighting for a while until she felt it was too dark to work in the gloom. She shut down her computer and collected her purse. The cleaner was working by the elevator and wished her goodnight.

Pao looked in the mirrored back wall of the elevator at her reflection. She fingered the charm on the red thread her brother had given her to wear around her neck. She wondered what exactly he had seen in her future.


	3. Appropriate Start Cannon

Ma and Shi were sitting ina tiny café on a ‘date’. Shi was holding his hand stroking his fingers lightly. He was resisting the impulse to pull his hand away.

The waitstaff was ignoring them. Shi was pressing him to come over on the weekend. Ma was briefly considering lying and saying he had to work but Shi would find out.

He was also thinking about what he would say to her as his answer when he heard the waiter gasp and reach for the TV remote to turn up the volume on the TV behind the bar.

A bomb had exploded at the Mon Kwok station and people had been killed. Trains had been cancelled. Chaos was erupting. It was going to be hard for Shi to get back to her place tonight.

Ma felt very unlucky. A feeling of dread came over him.

Shi was staring at the TV, “How awful. I need to call Auntie to let her know I’m okay. I could have been traveling through that station. She knows I use it. She’ll be worried.”

Shi kept talking excitedly.

Ma stopped talking. He pulled his own cell phone out of his jacket pocket. He noticed a small dribble of brown dust in the air as he did so.

He fiddled with his phone. He wasn’t going to get out of this evening with Shi easily. Shi continued to happily talk on her phone, whether to Auntie or a girlfriend he couldn’t tell.

He watched the live TV coverage of stretchers being carried out of the entrance to the subway. It wasn’t clear if the bomb had exploded on a train or on the platform. News footage showed ambulances and fire trucks blocking the street. Lights and sirens flashing.

Ma fisted his hands in his jacket pockets and sat back. His apartment was tidy. He didn’t really have any reason to avoid bringing Shi home with him. Just the sleeping problems.

Maybe having Shi stay over would help. He ran a hand over his short hair. He didn’t know what to do. She might make it worse.

Shi turned to him smiling, “Let’s leave. Do you want to? Can we get a taxi to your place?”

She tucked her cell phone back in her purse and looked expectantly at him.

He sighed. “Okay.”

He stood. He put some money on the table and with his hand on the small of her back, he steered her out to the entrance and then down the glass stars to the street.

“Do you see a taxi?” Shi craned her neck to see the road.

“Let’s walk for a bit.” Ma said.

He didn’t like to be sitting in the back seat of a car. He liked to drive.

“It’s hot. Let me put my hair up.” Shi paued on the sidewalk. Ma dropped his hand from her waist. Shi did a magic trick and her hair was high in a knot.

They walked in silence past the shuttered stores towards Ma’s apartment block. Shi held his hand tightly. Ma felt like he was being strangled.

Shi was asking him what plans he had over the weekend. She was asking him something.

He wasn’t listening.

In the grubby elevator Shi wound her arms around him even more. Shi pressed the button for the tenth floor. The button lit up. The elevator lurched a bit after Ma slid the cage shut. The elevator door closed and then lifted.

“Is your place clean?” She was smiling but her smile was a bit tight.

“Sure, sure.” Ma assured her quickly. He jabbed the button again uselessly. What did she want, why was she so nervous. The elevator shuddered to a stop.

He unlocked the barred screen door to the apartment and then the door. He ushered Shi in the apartment. She sniffed but didn’t speak. She set her purse carefully on the chair by the door. He closed the doors behind them with a thud.

“Does your window still open?” Shi asked. He could feel her lips pursing without seeing her face.

Ma moved to act, slipping out of his shoes, opening the window and fussing with the bed sheets.

Thankfully he had finished washing the dishes in the tiny sink before he reported to work. Shi moved to sit on the bed pushed up near the window. Ma stood helplessly in the room next to the bed. Unsure what to do next, Ma came to sit next to her on the edge of the bed.

That appeared to be the correct move. Shi leaned into him, talking about being so nervous about the bomb and how awful it was and how work would be busy tomorrow. Ma reached up and took her hair out of the knot. He sat as she talked and stroked her hair. They could hear the sirens in the distance.

Ma’s phone buzzed. He startled out of his doze and accidentally hit Shi with his arm. Hard. She whimpered but didn’t wake up. He disentangled himself from her arm, her hair and the sheet.

It was the adjutant calling to see if he could be at headquarters for a pickup at 7:30. He said yes. He didn’t ask who the car was for. He hoped it was Pao.

He snuck a look at the bed. Shi was still asleep, sprawled facing the window. Ma decided to just leave her there. He’d leave her with the spare key and maybe money for a taxi home.

He walked quietly around the bed to the bathroom. Shi hated the bathroom. No shampoo. No separate shower. He had a fast shower in the tepid water. He used soap on his hair. As always leaving a plastic bag on the top of the toilet seat so it wasn’t wet when he finished. He noticed a thread of dust flowing across to the centre drain and then it was gone.

He was dressed in his uniform and writing a note to Shi when she woke up.

“Are you going to work already?” He liked this Shi the best. She wasn’t so prissy when she first woke up.

Ma answered her, waving the note. “I got called in. I think it has to do with the bomb.”

“Be careful.”

Ma ignored that.  “You can take a taxi home from here. I will leave you a key and then you don’t have to leave now.”

Shi buried her head back into the sheet.

“Call you later.” Ma turned and left, closing the doors behind him. It felt like it was getting hot.


	4. Crossing the River

Ma drove slowly through the narrow streets as he got closer to Pao’s apartment building. He liked driving on the highway between headquarters and her area. But here the streets were almost empty and he was worried about getting lost. He didn’t normally drive in Kennedy Town in the dark.

He pulled up in front of what he thought was her apartment block. Parking a little awkwardly so he could check the number. He had his phone in his hand but just as he was about to call Pao, the passenger door behind him was yanked open and she got in. She was wearing very casual clothing and what looked like army boots.

She smiled at him in the rearview mirror, “Did you have a good sleep? Apparently it was a busy night.”

Ma nodded, He waited for instructions. Car idling, his hand on the gear shift.

She looked up, “Sorry. PTU please. Old Shore Road.” He took the car out of park and drove off. Pao was texting in the backseat.

At PTU, Ju was waiting in the lobby for Pao. Ju was as always in a spotless uniform. He was holding his hat in his hands. His hair was gelled into a crested wave.

He looked at Ma. Ma had come in the lobby with Pao, hat on the back of his head, a couple of paces behind her. If he had to park here he needed the parking card from the front desk.

Pao turned to Ma and asked him to wait, “I don’t know when this will be done. Ma can you stick around?”

Ju stepped forward, hands in front of him. “Hey there, that’s not really necessary. Pao lets take your car since you already have one assigned.”

He nodded to Ma.

Ma fled the lobby and waited beside the car as Ju and Pao discussed what they needed to do and where they were going to do it.

Ju and Pao sat in the back seat. They were talking quietly about the bombing. Details that hadn’t been on the news. Ma wasn’t surprised that the case that pulled them all out of bed was the bombing.

Ju had given Ma directions to where they could enter the perimeter of the crime scene. He’d pulled up and Pao told him to leave her. She’d call him back for a pickup later. “I still have your number from the dinner delivery yesterday.”

Ma nodded. He’d try avoid going back to headquarters, maybe find a spot and have a nap until she called him or his shift was over. He got out of the car and opened the door for Ju. Pao had already gotten out of the car. Ju was teasing her about her rush. Ma lowered his head and drove off. Leaving them with Ju’s equipment.

They were going to walk in from here. It was a large troublesome crime scene. The transit station had been packed and it was not easy to tell where the centre of the explosion had been. Ju would walk around with Pao and then meet up with some more of his team to compare notes.

Ju said “When monkeys fight they scatter dirt.” And handed Pao a facemask. They were standing next to a PTU SUV outside the perimeter, the back filled with equipment. He handed her a few items. She held them awkwardly, putting on her mask.

“Glad to see you aren’t in heels.” Ju smiled at her before he put on his own mask.

“Even I know better. But you are in uniform. Your laundress will be mad at you when you get so dirty it can’t be cleaned.”

Ju laughed, “I get my uniforms drycleaned. My mom doesn’t do a good enough job. But you know Pao, when the mirror is highly polished, dirt doesn’t defile it.”

Pao rolled her eyes.

They gloved up and started to walk up to the police tape line across the street. Ju checked in with the uniform on the sidewalk. He checked them in after checking IDs. Pao had worn hers around her neck on a lanyard.

Ju nodded at her ID. “Nice Mr Coffee lanyard there. Very professional.”

Pao made a dismissive noise and kept walking.

Ju led the walk down the smoke blackened stairs. Pao switched on her flashlight. Still not able to turn on the power until the water had been drained out and the engineers gave it the go ahead. It didn’t look so bad to start but this was a deep station. Lots of stairs to get to the turnstiles. Smoke damage and puddles from putting out the fire.

Ju touched her arm lightly. He pointed. There was a knot of cops working by the ticket machines and turnstiles.

She had always liked doing the initial sweep of the crimescene with Ju. He didn’t patronize her and he didn’t talk too much. That was him every other moment, mindless chatter and aphorisms, but not when they were working on getting that first idea of what had happened.

A technician was poking at something near or against the wall. Ju and Pao came over to look at the scorch mark and the charred fabric.

The technician stood up and cracked their back. Only their eyes were visible above their mask and below their hat.

“Hey Pao. Ju.” The technician nodded to them both.

“Who is under that mask?” asked Ju.

Pao answered first, “Hi Lau Sim. What’s that charcoal lump?”

The technician lifted their mask to their forehead, revealing a young woman under a layer of dirt everywhere the mask had not covered.

“Looks like a backpack. Here’s where the strap is.” She poked at some melted plastic bits.

“Someone doing the security video?”

“Think so. The fire didn’t get very far. But the bomb was in a pretty crowded entrance here. Took a while to clean up. Ambulance crews just left.” Lau-Sim put her mask back on.

“Yeah. That’s harsh.” Pao did find the smell of charred flesh starting to permeate her mask.

“Well yes. But ladies, finding the centre is always a good start. When you drink the water, remember the spring.” Ju was looking down at the blackened lump and then turned slowly away to look farther down the station entrance to where the charring eventually stopped in a broken glass covered tile floor. He started to walk carefully towards the area where the station floor was clean.


	5. Snake (蛇)

"Ma. Hey Ma, what is this?" Pao didn’t sound angry. Just asking.

Ma lifted his head off the steering wheel where it had been pillowed on his hands to glance blearily up at his boss. "Sleeping." He grunted.

She responded a second later with a hard crack to the top of his head. She wasn’t impressed he guessed.  She was treating him like yet another auntie he didn’t need.

"Get up. No sleeping on the job. We have to get to that press conference. I'm late already."

He closed his own car door, he had given up trying to assist her. She got in the backseat and slammed the door.

She looked different than when he had dropped her off. Her mood hadn’t changed though. He nodded at her general direction and wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand.

His eyes felt dusty. He had the odd dream again but something was different. Instead of birds he had heard hooves.

He shifted in his seat and got the car into gear.

"Where ma’am?"

"Conference Center Downtown. Head for the back parking."

She sat in the backseat staring out the window this time. Her phone stayed in her purse during the trip. They had finished up at the scene by about lunchtime. She had gone back to headquarters to change into her ‘dress up clothes’. Everyone had them stashed at work.

You never knew when you would have to stand around looking presentable. Even if you had just spent the last eight hours kneeling in blood spatter they wanted you to look like all you ever did was sit in conference rooms.

Guys had it easy. Just a clean shirt and a tie. Often still in the plastic with the price tag still on, stashed in a drawer. Bingo. Done. Even easier if you were in uniform.

She had to have heels, nylons, that one blouse, a skirt, lipstick. Dress up was a correct description in her mind. Like a Halloween costume. She had to borrow hairspray off the admin. It did help to mask the burned smell from the transit station though.

Pao and Ju had a comical movie moment at the incident site where their phones went off at the same time. Same message appeared on both their phones. ‘Presser downtown. Go there now’.

Ju said he would probably see them there. He never had to change. Even after four hours in the bombed station, his uniform was still spotless.

She had managed to find Ma and get him to drive her back to headquarters first. He had not been far from the scene and picked her up by the tape. Back at headquarters he waited in the parking lot for her to change and come back down.

When she had rushed back down to the lot, she had found him completely asleep in the driver’s seat. She wondered if he had more than one job. She realized she didn’t know anything about his personal life.

Was he married? Maybe he had six kids and lived in one of those battery hen bed space apartment buildings. He probably had another job. He was so tired all the time. Or maybe he was ill. She wouldn’t ask. It was none of her business.

+++++

Now they were all here. The journalists were standing. No seats in this room.

Ma stood at the back of the room, gnawing on a toothpick and staring across the crowd at the uniform guys at the front of the room currently sweating under the TV lights.  He was leaning against the wall. His legs were tired.

The uniformed man in the big hat had explained that there were no solid leads yet but that they were working through every possibility. They were still identifying victims. Ma had heard very similar information from the backseat earlier today.

Seemed like a no-win to book a press conference this early. But there they all were lined up for the cameras. The men looked stressed out up on the podium.

He could hear questions being shouted from the floor, journalists all talking at once. The screen behind them showed photos of the scene and shots of someone identified as a person of interest from the security cameras in the station. Blurry images of person-shaped smears. Out of focus shape in a dark hat. Red circled on the screen but still not identifiable.

Then the general held up his hand, "No more. No more questions. We're done here. Thanks everyone."

The assembled men on the podium followed his lead as he removed his hat, turned and bowed first to the red and gold shrine assembled in the corner, and then to the conference room.

He frowned out at the crowd and stalked off from the stage.

Ma shifted his weight from where he was leaning against the wall and slowly made his way against the tide to the back of the room.

A woman he thought he recognized, was walking towards him and began slowing to a stop. It was Shi. She began to clutch at his arm, mournful eyes, her mouth starting to say something. She started to speak and she had his key in one hand. Ma shrugged her off skillfully.

He kept on moving, leaving her standing in the crowd with her mouth open, still talking.

He exhaled with relief when he made it to the back of the room without any more awkward contact. He was still feeling exhausted from when Pao had woken him up in the car. He couldn’t deal with Shi. Not while he was at work today.

His hand brushed off his sleeve where Shi had touched him. Light brown dust puffed up off his sleeve and onto his fingertips. He looked at his fingers and then scrubbed his hands on the back of his jacket.

He took his toothpick out of his mouth and flicked it at a potted tree in the corner of the conference room. He stood for a moment behind a group of uniforms waiting for a sightline to open to Pao.

He smoothed both palms down the front of his jacket.

Pao was standing just to the left of the general, who was now back in his hat, speaking earnestly to the assembled group in front of him. Ma could see Ju, his tall frame standing a bit to the side, hatchet face staring over at Pao. His hat was of course off. Not a hair out of place.

Ma looked back to Pao.  She arched an eyebrow at him and nodded to her left. He moved to stand where she had indicated. He looked down at his shoes to avoid eye contact with anyone else. The crowd of people swirled around him and finally ebbed.

Pao walked over, her heels clicking on the tiles. "Let's go Ma."

He halfheartedly saluted as she walked away. He lowered his arm once it was clear she wasn't paying attention. He loped after her. He didn't offer to take her briefcase.

When they had returned to headquarters, Pao had told Ma to go off shift. She had desk work to do and they weren’t going to be paying overtime. That was fine with him. He had an idea he wanted to try.

Ma wasn’t overly superstitious but still. You live in Hong Kong for long enough you start to think there may be ghosts and spirits around. Something that looked like a girl ghost in a cistern. A malevolent presence in the basement. A dripping noise in a room as dry as a bone.

Ma was thinking that maybe he had been cursed. One of the drivers had told a story about going to the snake prince. He was a fortuneteller who used snaked to divine the future. Ma had been carrying around the address since that loudmouth had been talking about it in the drivers’ break room.

He waited for the bus on the crowded corner. He didn’t like the bus any more than he liked the back of a taxi but he wanted to spend his money on the fortune at the Temple Street Night Market. The snake prince had a stall there.

Once as a child Ma had watched a fortune teller at the market use a small bird to tell the fortune of a client. The small green bird would look up at the client with beady small eyes, then turn its head quizzically and hop over to the fortune sticks, selecting the appropriate ones with its little beak.

The bird also selected charms for the client from a wooden tea box the medium had set up containing charms. After sitting on the client’s head for a few minutes, the bird would knock on the right little drawer containing the charm with one curled up clawed foot.

Ma thought about the bird. He wondered how the bird could be so cleverly trained to do those things for money or if the bird really was a spirit. The clients had been impressed that the fortunes and the charms suited their own unique circumstances.

Ma had never tried the bird fortunes. He didn’t have money as a child and he guessed he had forgotten completely about it in the intervening years. He moved closer to the door on the crowded bus. He felt someone touching his jacket and slapped their hand away. He looked down and growled at the kid trying to pickpocket him. The kid fled back into the crowd at the back of the bus.

He got off the bus, patting his pockets. Keys, phone, police driver ID, money. All there. His phone vibrated, startling him.

Shi. He thought about not answering her call but then thought better of it.

“Wei.”

“Ma what is your problem? I wanted to give you back your keys. I saw you at the press conference. You ignored me.”

Ma was standing in front of a computer store. The display was lit up and filled with technology. He stood still, a rock in the flow of pedestrian sidewalk traffic.

“Shi, it just wasn’t good timing to talk to you then.”

“Right. You know your apartment is filled with dust. You need to get an air cleaner. The bedsheets were coated in it. I had to wash my hair twice to get the dust out. You should complain to the property managers.”

“Sure sure Shi. I have to go now.”

“When can I give you back your keys? What about the weekend plans?”

Ma thought about the empty apartment and Shi’s soft skin. Then he thought about the dust and the exhaustion.

“I think I’m working. It’s this bombing.”

Shi exhaled loudly. “Okay okay. Later Ma. I love you.”

Ma stood looking at the phone in his hand. He said “Sure sure.” and hung up. He looked at his phone a bit longer and then he headed down Temple Street to see if he could find the snake prince.

+++

The snake prince was not easy to find after all. He had to ask at a number of stalls. But once he found him, it was worth every penny.

The snake prince was at first glance a young man. Sitting at the booth front on a tall stool, he was wearing a dark hoodie. His face was broad and flat. Almost Mongolian maybe. He had a shock of white hair covering his forehead. A thick black braid was visible wrapped around his neck under the sweater.

But his eyes staring out at Ma from under the pale hair was the strangest and most compelling argument for him being a fortune teller. He had deep golden eyes.

The man smiled widely at Ma.

“I’ve been waiting for you!” He clapped his hands together and then waved for Ma to follow him into the back of the booth.

Ma stood in front of the booth considering this development.

“But I only thought about coming to you maybe just two hours ago.”

“Yes, yes, I know all that.” The man seemed impatient. “Come in Ma.”

Ma didn’t think he had introduced himself.

“You came to see me as a fortuneteller no? I am telling your fortune. Please come in.”

Ma came around the edge of the counter and allowed himself to be guided into the work area.

The snake prince made a small hissing sound. A skinny child in Age of Ultron pajamas appeared at the front of the booth. “Take care of the front, I have a client.”

The child nodded and sat down on the stool, pulling out a video game, ignored them completely. The snake prince dropped a heavy curtain between the front and back parts of the stall.

Ma stayed standing. He wasn’t sure where to sit. There were a number of snakes in cages. And a number of snakes not in cages, coiled up on the carpet draped couch and on the carpeted floor of the tent. The tent looked like something from the northern mainland mountains. Low furniture, a set of glass tea cups on a brass tray, and the snakes.

“I am Seh and I have actually been waiting for you.”

Ma didn’t think that was possible.

“I want to know if I’ve been cursed.”

“Would you like tea? Or something stronger? Please have a seat.” Seh waved his hand and the snake on the couch uncoiled and slid away under the rug covering hanging down to the floor.

Ma sat gingerly on the hard couch. “Can you tell if I’ve been cursed?”

Seh sat back and looked at Ma more closely. He took Ma’s hands in his own. Ma saw that Seh was not young. His face was smooth but his hands seemed old.

“Ma tell me why you think you have been bewitched?” Seh held Ma’s hands very tightly and looked directly into Ma’s eyes.

Ma felt overwhelmed and stammered, “I can’t sleep. And there is all this dust.”

Seh smiled, a snake curled out from inside his hoodie. “Dust. Let us see the dust.”

He turned one of Ma’s hands firmly over to inspect his palm. The snake in the hoodie was interested and came out, black tongue flicking out as it undulated down Seh’s arm.

“We need to see the dust.” Seh released one of Ma’s hands and gave him an incense stick. “Please, think about the dust and offer your prayer.” Seh fished a lighter out of his hoodie pocket and released Ma’s other hand. He lit the incense as Ma held it between both hands. Seh pointed to a dark little shrine in the corner.

Ma stood a bit shakily, faced the shrine and bowed twice with the incense between his palms. He stayed down for a moment. What was he doing? He squeezed his eyes closed. He thought he felt an impossible hot dry breeze on his face and then he heard the quiet nicker of a horse somewhere.

“Ma.” He heard Seh call his name in a whisper that sounded a little like the wind.

Ma pulled himself back to himself. The incense stick he was clutching in his hands was completely burned down and had gone out.

Seh was sitting on a stool smoking a thin pipe and drinking a glass of tea. Seh turned towards him. “Ah Ma, are you yourself again?”

Ma sat up. He was sitting on the hard couch. He threw the incense stick on the tea tray.

“Did you see any dust?” He asked the snake prince. His throat was dry.

Seh nodded and showed Ma a tea saucer, lightly dusted with brown.  A snake was on the tea table. Ma couldn’t tell if it was the same snake that had been interested in his palms. Ma drew his finger through the dust, leaving a curved line on the plate.

Seh had taken off his hoodie. Ma saw that the coiled braid around his neck was unsurprisingly actually a snake. He was wearing a white tank top and aside from the odd white bangs and his golden eyes he looked like any stringy old uncle Ma had ever seen. He had a thick tattoo of a snake coiled around both of his wrists.

“Not a curse my friend. But a blessing. Yes.” Seh puffed on the pipe. “Did you get the answer you came for?”

Ma looked at him in amazement. “That’s a terrible fortune. You haven’t told me anything.”

Seh said with a grin, “You asked me if you had been cursed. I found you an answer. Job completed.”

Ma started, a snake was curled around his ankles. “What must I pay you for this useless answer then?”

“I don't need money for this fortune. You came to me with your fortune already told.”

Ma sat and looked at him.

“You don't understand me now Ma. But you will. When it is clear to you perhaps I will take my payment at that time.” He exhaled a long thin plume of smoke.

The snakes left Ma alone and slithered off. Seh offered Ma a glass of tea that he took with shaking hands. Seh just smiled and smoked.

Ma tried again. “So the dust though.”

Seh sighed and put the pipe down. “The dust is from where you should be. That is not here.”

Ma continued on still attempting to get more information, “And the being tired? Is that normal?”

“Yes Ma that is correct.” Seh didn’t seem to have much else to say. As if it was perfectly normal to dream of some hot dry wasteland where the dust came back with you when you wake up.

“Is there a charm or some shrine I can visit to get this to stop?”

“Why would you want it to stop? I doubt there’s a charm.”

Ma kept trying but Seh refused to give him any more information. The soft light in the tent was unsurprisingly making Ma sleepy. He figured he should get out of there while he still could.

Ma sat in the exotic carpeted tent so a little longer before excusing himself. Seh had refused any payment. The child was gone when he came through the curtain to the street. An older woman in a dark head wrap was sitting on the stool. She nodded at Ma. He paid very little attention to her in his hurry to leave the snake prince behind.


	6. Fox (九尾狐)

Ma didn't feel any better after the trip to the Temple Street Night Market. When he was back at his  stifling apartment, he had found a dark ring of bruising around his left ankle. As if the snake had pulled on his leg. As if the snake had pulled him back from something. Or somewhere.

And his pockets were full of dust. Today he had remembered to put his cell phone in a plastic bag to keep the dust out of it.

Now he was sitting in the drivers’ break room. Chee-ming had asked him to go get a snack. Well Chee-ming had ordered him to go, but Ma had refused to answer him.

He was sitting next to the open window with the fans on. He was thinking about horses.

His parents were ordinary. He was ordinary. His mother had told him that his name was Ma. He needed to be named Ma so they named him Ma. Whenever Ma complained to her about being teased she just said the same thing.

He was the only son in an ordinary family. He had no siblings or cousins, aunts or uncles, or even grandparents. He was an average or lower student. He excelled at nothing until he learned about driving. He adored driving.

His parents were now dead, he couldn’t ask them any more about the whole Ma, dust, horses thing. The snake prince wouldn’t tell him anything. Ma was suspicious of the snake prince. He looked like too much like someone’s old uncle in his sweatshirt, sucking on his teeth and smoking that brass pipe.

Ma thought about the snakes. It seemed too dramatic for Temple Street. Some of those snakes had to be rubber.

He heard laughing. A driver had sniffed the air in the break room theatrically and said loudly that it smelled like horses. The entire driving pool had erupted in laughter at that. "So fitting for you Ma!”

"Assholes" he muttered to himself, head down, refusing to leave the room even though his cheeks were burning. He wasn’t going anywhere unless Pao wanted a driver.

+++

He had been driving for Pao more often. She had been working much more with PTU so Ma was seeing quite a bit of Ju.

Ma was still having problems sleeping. Well that was kind of an understatement. He could eventually fall asleep after a certain number of hours but it was anything but restful. He dreamed endlessly the same thing, and then he would have to bolt awake with his alarm ringing. Always late. Always tired. This had been going on for weeks.

When he woke up after these dreams, he had found his bare feet were dusty and he had dust in his eyes and hair. His body was as sore as if he had been doing hard labour in his sleep.

Pao had just laughed at his tiredness and told him to get some tips on managing what she called his ‘somnolent second job'.

She got him a sparkly shiny ornament for the rear view mirror, a set of two little red shoes. "For luck" she had said. "Have you heard of the twelve dancing princesses? You'll need an extra set of dancing shoes if you are wearing yours out every night in your sleep." She needled him about his love life, blaming that for his tiredness at work.

He had been avoiding Shi. He couldn’t help it. The other drivers were bad enough to be around. He didn’t want to talk to Shi about it. She wasn’t very interested in superstition or folktales. He felt like he was living in one. She just wouldn’t understand.

Shi had called him a couple of times. He either didn’t pick up or he told her he was in the middle of something. He was going to lose her.

When he had showered this morning he had watched thin brown swirls of dust wash down his legs and feet and into the drain. He was going nuts obviously.

He leaned his head on his arms against the tiles and stared down at the drain. He could still hear the hooves in his head. Pounding steadily on the desert ground. Heading uphill into the dull brown mountains cold under a winter sun in the cloudless sky.

He had scrubbed at his short hair fully under the rapidly cooling water. He saw a plume of brown dusty water followed. He had noticed the line of brown dust under his fingernails when he was driving last week. His hands on the steering wheel looked tanned and he had thin dark lines of dust imbedded in his knuckle joints.

++++

Ma could feel his thigh muscles aching. His dreams were getting worse and more complex. He was tapping out during the day on a more regular basis. He was now dreaming of the desert itself. Nothing he did was working to stay awake.

He was using his finger to write the character for horse over and over again on the café tabletop. He had a coffee in front of him. It wasn't helping him stay awake though. He felt jittery, His hands twitched of their own accord and he repeated the tracing of the character over and over with his index finger. One, two, three and four legs. Adding the small marks for the horse’s legs in the traditional character was strangely satisfying.

Pao was sitting at another table in deep conversation with Ju. Her hair fell in a straight curtain shielding her face from him. He couldn't see what she was saying from where he was sitting but he could see Ju.

Ju’s hatchet face was tense. He was listening to something he didn't want to hear it seemed. They both turned and looked at him. Pao indicated with just a shake of her head that he should wait for them outside.

Ma dropped his gaze and waved to the waitress at the counter for the bill. Apparently it was time for him to find something to do somewhere else. He tossed some coins on the table and stood up. He left the rest of his coffee on the table. He was going to be tired regardless.

He left the cafe to stand outside and wait for her. He inspected his dusty hands. He heard a noise and looked up to underbelly of a low passing plane. So low to the city. In this canyon of apartment blocks he could only see a small rectangle of sky.

He looked through the café window for her instructions. She signaled him off for at least ten minutes with a practiced wave of her hand. He decided to wander down the street a bit and look for a snack that might calm his skittishness. Noodles. He could smell them. Maybe around the corner.

He found the cart noodle vendor across the street and in front of the phone card place. Some little red plastic stools on the sidewalk, bottle of hot sauce and a jar of clean chopsticks at the stand. It wasn't lunchtime so he was the only customer at the moment.

He couldn't see the person behind the vast cloud of steam from the boiling water, He stood for a moment and then ordered "Efu noodles, intestine, green vegetable. Ok? How much?"

A hand in the midst of the cloud stuck out four fingers. He retrieved the right number of coins from a pocket and dropped them into the tin can on the cart. The figure behind the cart grunted and handed him a plastic spoon and pointed at the chopsticks.

He picked a stool a bit off from the curb. He heard frying and splashing. He turned his head back and suddenly there was a bowl of noodles being held in front of him. An older woman with a tanned lined face and an old-fashioned black head wrap was looking at him intently. She looked familiar but he didn’t think he knew her.

She grinned at him as he took the bowl. She said, "Eat up Mister. Oh, is it you, Ma?" She squatted down beside his little low table on the curb.

"Sorry. I don't think I know you Auntie."

"Jiu. Jiuweihu is me." She laughed again in a low voice, with a little laugh that sounded a bit like a soft bark. "I think I do know you though. You are Ma. No? A driver?"

"You do know me. I don't know you" He paused to squirt hot sauce into his bowl. “This has been happening a lot in the last couple of days.” He left his spoon in the bowl and began shovelling the noodles in his mouth with the chopsticks.

"I think you do know me. I also think you are lost."

"Eating. Waiting. Not lost. Auntie." he said around mouthfuls.

"Ma, come and see me again when you remember being lost. I will be here." The noodle vendor held out something to him. "This will help you remember maybe?" Then she laughed again. He stuck the chopsticks in his bowl and held out his left hand for whatever she was offering. It was an old worn wooden xiangqi piece.

He looked at the little wooden object for a second and then dropped it in his pocket. "So funny Auntie. A chess piece."

"Yes, yes. So funny Ma." She laughed again and turned away to return to her steaming cart. Under her stained apron, she had on a thick padded jacket and pants. Her worn indigo jacket had a fringe of short fur tail tips along the bottom that he hadn't noticed at first.

She called back over her shoulder, "Stay out of trouble until I see you again. You don't want to be hobbled do you?" She grinned again.

Now he could see that her teeth were stained black and almost too pointy. She returned to the cart to disappear behind her cloud of steam and smoke.

The noodles were good but he felt slightly uneasy. He was almost finished anyway. He left his bowl on the table and stood up. Funny old woman, enough with the jokes.

He felt a dull clang of recognition of her voice or maybe her manner. Something in him did recognize her but he couldn't quite identify it. He hadn’t been in this neighbourhood recently, he’d have remembered the noodles. They were very good.

Brushing a light coating of brown dust off his shirtfront with a paper napkin from the table, he started to walk back to the cafe to pick up Pao.

+++

Ma was back in his spot at the back of the briefing room. Shi was making a beeline towards him. He was too tired to hide this time.

"Ma, are you avoiding me? I've been trying to get in touch with you for a couple of days now." She didn't sound angry, that was a good thing. He was holding the wooden chess piece in his pocket, fingertips smoothing over the faint character marked on it.

"I'm still waiting for an answer. This is becoming difficult for me to ask you every time I see you. You ignore me most of the time." She tossed her hair out of her eyes. Looking into his face. He wanted to please her but he was just too tired.

"No." He said it. Although he said it softly.

"No what Ma? Why are you making me wait? You are humiliating me." She was getting upset. In his pocket, he held onto the chess piece tighter in fingers.

"Don’t know."

"Why does every word out of your mouth sound like it is being dragged out of you?"

 "I need more time...." Ma’s sentence slid to a stop. She turned on her heel and walked away before he was finished speaking.

He had enjoyed being with her. She was soft, smelled good and filled the room with her conversation. She had reached up for him and hung on as if she would never let go.

If he didn’t want Shi to come to his apartment any more, he certainly couldn’t go to hers. Auntie. A malevolent presence who he didn’t want to have anything to do with.

Maybe he should go to yet a different fortune teller to see what to do about Shi. That seemed like a more pedestrian problem. Maybe the snake prince would actually offer advice for a love problem.

Any relationship Shi had with him had evaporated as his sleeping issues had overwhelmed him. He couldn't bear to have another person near him at night if he was going through this ritual of dust. He was too tired to concentrate on her during the day. He needed all of his energy to stay awake during his shift.

And he couldn't talk to anyone about the dust. That damn dust, seeping into his sheets, blowing across the floor.

He pulled out the token the noodle Auntie had given him to look at it one more time. A smoothed and blackened wooden chess piece. He thought it was the horse piece, the character on it was worn down so it was impossible to tell if it was a black piece or red piece.

He heard his name being called.

He dropped the piece back in his pocket and looked up to see Pao sweeping across the room towards him. She looked irritated, "Let's go. I have to go back to the office. No confession yet. No useful videotapes. Have to review with the team."

He followed her back out to the car. He never did get a chance to open her door. He would just press the remote button from behind. She would yank the door open and get into the car. She never looked for him, just expected him to be there. To unlock the car, to drive her here and there, he was part of her background.

That suited him today. He was tired and each motion he made felt like it was dragging him backwards. He got in and started the car. He drove slowly across town to Headquarters. Maybe once he parked he could take a short nap. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed light brown dust falling inside the car and settling in the creases of the steering wheel.

When they got to Headquarters, he pulled in her parking spot and she didn’t even wait until she got out of the car. “Take a nap. I can’t have you falling asleep on the road. I’ll be back after the briefing.” And she walked towards the entrance to the lobby.

+++++

He had opened his eyes to searing brightness. He was wearing a fur hat low over his eyes. He raised his fingers to touch the fur.

He stared at his hands, long dirty sheepskin coat sleeves ended just over his fingers. He was standing on a road. He was on a dusty country road and completely surrounded by horses.

He looked down and he was wearing thick, worn and heavy padded clothing. He had reins in his hand. His breath made clouds in the chill air and he listened to the horses around him whinnying for a moment.

For some reason, he moved to mount the horse he had reins for. The only horse in the group with a bridle and an old fashioned saddle. He swung himself up, surprised at the ease with which he managed to sit astride the horse. He made a low clucking noise and the horse started to walk. The other horses followed.

He put the hand not holding the reins into the front of his coat where is crossed his chest. There was a small fabric pouch with a familiar shape inside. He fussed with the pouch to get out the small token inside.

It was a red horse piece from a chess set, unworn. Brand new. With complete and bright colour on the sharp raised character. He put the pouch back in his coat, unsure what to do with this disconnect of what he knew to be true.

There wasn’t a soul to be seen in the stretch of road he could see before it curved away into the brownish red landscape. He let the horse lead the way while he thought about this new development.

He heard a shout, he thought it was his name. Surprising him completely, and turning to see who was there, he fell unbalanced from the horse. Suddenly his vision went dark and he was overcome with bone weary tiredness.

He woke up with a start in the car at the sound of his name. The airless night was starting to gray out the details around him in the shadows outside of the parking lot lighting.

“Ma. Ma!” She sounded irritated. “I didn’t mean for you to go to bed for the night.”

He apologized and pulled his car seat upright. He scrubbed at his face with his hands and sat up a bit straighter, trying to regroup enough to drive the car.

“And take the car in for a vacuum after you drop me off at home. It’s all dusty in here for some reason.”

Pao sat in the back seat and turned away from him. He guessed her case wasn’t going well today.


	7. Chariot (俥)

Yesterday Pao had met up with Ju to discuss their stalled bomb case. She needed help with her problem.

She had sat in her cubicle staring at the horse artwork on the divider. Her case was stalled. She was irritated. She rubbed her temples and looked at her laptop once more.

The bomb had gone off in a crowded downtown transit station in a busy urban neighbourhood. The station had security cameras. There was a community policing kiosk located in on the ticket machine level. With video surveillance.

Many of the retail shops at street level had security cameras, rafts of pedestrians had cellphone cameras, vehicles had dashcams and the street itself had security camera. Nothing.

Two blurred photos of “a guy” with “a backpack.” The photo could have been of a dog in a wig for all she could tell from looking at the stills ITS had provided her from the available video.

They had located a burned car that didn’t fit in anywhere. They couldn’t connect the vehicle with the transit station. No-one had claimed responsibility for the bomb yet. It seemed to be a crime for nothing.

She needed to try to see what General Jiang was doing with his one suspect or lead he had told the press he had.

She’d grab Ma and go out to that café to talk to Ju. He’d know what his general was up to. Lieutenant Ju. Who would have thought that he’d make lieutenant so quickly.

+++++

She toyed with her tall glass of coffee that she didn't want with whipped cream on top that she didn't eat. The uniform in front of her had suggested that they go with the jailhouse informant. She wasn't convinced. She had concerns.

She glanced out the window of the cafe, Ma was on the sidewalk looking forlorn. She waved him off.

"He's been looking sick for a while now. Has he been to a doctor?" Ju asked.

She looked back at Ju, who was wearing the military ETF brigade uniform instead of his greens.

"He'll have a nap and be back. Judge not the horse by his saddle, he's lazy but he's not a fool"

Ju laughed. “You’ve been doing some reading? Confucius?” He continued on not waiting for an answer, "So anyway Pao, what about the offer from the public prosecutor for this guy?"

"Your guy is a liar. He's just trying to get out of prison. I doubt he knows anything."

Ju frowned, Pao asked more intently "So who did he think that crap photo was?"

He was slow to answer, he ran his hand over his hair, "He said he didn't know the guy's name. But he recognized the backpack."

Pao, tossed her napkin down on the table, "I recognize that backpack from the back to school flyers. Why are we talking to him in the first place?"

"Pao, we have a huge problem. I need something. The media is chewing me up. Jiang is upset."

He moved to put his hand lightly on her arm.

She took his hand off her arm and dropped it back on the table by the sugar. "Enough of that. I didn't come out for this meeting for that." She frowned at him and sat back in her chair, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "You are still running around after your General. Do I care if Jiang is upset?”

He grinned back at her, his sharp featured face lit up as if to say 'oh well what did you expect?'

“No Pao, I understand that my problems are not your problems. A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows public opinion.”

“And a wise woman ignores gossipy old men trying to make something fit their needs that is not connected.” She continued a little testily, tapping her coffee cup with her fingernail, "So from here on, what are our next steps. I don't want anything to do with your jail guy Zu. Are we releasing the crappy images of the backpack guy? A reward maybe?"

Ju set his mouth a little, losing the grin, "We're going straight ahead." He held up his spoon. "What choice do we have? The burned out car you found the day before gave us nothing. Jiang's on our asses. He needs something to say up there on the podium."

Pao thought for a bit, "You have anything from the last two days? Anything from the public or any sources other than Zu?"

Ju blew out his cheeks and then exhaled heavily. "Nope."

"He won't stand up to scrutiny. His story is like a net at the moment. More hole than string."

Ju smiled at her again, "I think you mean 'making a net works better than praying by the side of the lake'" He laughed at his own joke and then took a sip of his coffee.

"Whatever. Tell me again why we couldn't have this conversation back at the office?"

"I wanted to see you."

"Ju that will never happen."

"Pao, you are so harsh to me." Ju tried his best to look hurt. "And," he waved the spoon at her again, "I wanted to ask you if you could check with Xiang on this. You know, without the department officially asking him."

"He doesn't exactly have any interest in helping the military police. And he doesn't have the right clearance to be a trusted source. How do you even know I am in contact with him?"

Ju looked her in the eye, He deadpanned. "We monitor your phone."

He smiled again, "Joke! Ha. But you are still in contact with him though so just ask him what he knows. As a favour to me."

"Ok," she held up her hands, "I'll see. He may not want to talk to me. And he may not want to talk to me about the bombing."

Ju leaned back a bit, "We need a bomb maker, the backpack guy, what the point was. Anything. Anything Xiang knows about."

Pao said slowly, "Just so you know. He may not want to talk to me. And this isn't exactly what we normally talk about. I really never ever talk shop with him."

"So what do I tell General Jiang?"

"Whatever you want. Just tell him I say he doesn't get to choose my results. I'll get back to you as fast as I can."

The pony-tailed waiter was hovering in his long dark green apron, clutching his receipt pad, unsure of who to give the bill to.

"You paying? I think I see your driver over there."

"You're such a jerk Ju. My coffee is on you for the ordeal of just dealing with you." She was smiling though as she got her stuff and left the cafe to find Ma looking pale but waiting outside on the sidewalk for her.

++++

Ma opened his eyes to the floor of his apartment. He had fallen off his bed and onto the floor. His head hurt. He was crammed between the bed and the window.

The window was open, the curtain touching the end of the bed as it moved in the cold breeze. He got up and moved the two steps to the tiny bathroom. He looked in the mirror as he splashed water on his face. His lower face was slightly tanned, a paler forehead with a light line of dust where a hat might have sat low on his forehead. He had a reddish purple bruise on the side of his face, he guessed from the floor. He ran a hand over his hair. Dust.

He was already late for his work start time. He grabbed a shirt from a hanger in the shower stall and put it on as he gargled with mouthwash.

He had fallen asleep in his pants. He found socks and his shoes and ran out the door, putting his shoes on in the elevator down to the lobby. He’d never make it over there in time for her pickup. He was going to get fired this time for sure.

++++

A uniform stuck his head over the partition of her cubicle and said, “Hey Pao, did you know? Your driver disappeared.”

She turned towards him, confused. “What? What do you mean? I sent Ma home yesterday to go to the doctor. He’s falling asleep all the time.”

“Well that’s no excuse. He didn't show up today and no-one can find him now.”

“God who needs this. You tried his phone? Ma what is going on with you?” She stood up. “I actually need to get to an appointment. I guess I’ll take a driver from the pool. Do you know if anyone is on break now or even available?”

The uniform looked down at a clipboard, he ticked off names with a pen. “I think someone is available to drive you, what’s your destination?”

She looked him right in the eye. “Mong Kok. I have an appointment. Can you keep me posted I guess if anyone finds him while I’m out of the office?”

“No ferry? Then you’ll need the car for the rest of the day. Maybe go down and see who is around. Thanks Pao, have a nice afternoon!”

+++++

She missed Ma and his complete lack of any sense of humour. Her temp driver was getting on her nerves with his constant throat clearing and attempting to tell jokes. She had asked for the Western Harbor Crossing route, now she was regretting the extra time spent in the car.

He was complaining about Ma, that he smelled like horses, that he was always dusty, that he could never take a joke, that he could fall asleep in any position.

Pao had said testily, “I have to make a phone call.” Her temp driver just switched into lowering his voice to continue his comedy routine until the tunnel exit came into view.

“Ms. Pao? You wanted the Sino Mall?” “Yes. The Sino Centre, on Nathan Road. You know by the bus stops.” “Sure sure Ms. Pao.”

She faked making a call as they came into the daylight. When they got to the address, her driver pulled up into a bus parking space. She hauled her briefcase and purse out of the car, stopping to rearrange her skirt. She leaned back into the car. “I’ll call you to come and get me, don’t wait anywhere around here or you’ll get a parking ticket. Maybe over by the YMCA?”

“Yes Ms. Pao.”

Ma had always either called her “ma’am” or nothing. She also didn’t have to give him instructions about driving. It was just something he managed for her.

She slammed the car door and turned away towards the sidewalk.

She turned into the mall just past the crowd at one of the crowded manga stores. Xiang always thought it was hilarious to meet her here. He made ‘time’ for her today. Ha ha. She walked down a corridor of only stores selling watches. She stopped in front of a storefront with a reddish marble front. The shutter was down.

She pounded on the shutter with her free hand. She made sure to turn her face up to the camera holding her hair off her face. After a moment, the shutter rolled up with a slow groaning noise. She put her hand on the door handle. She heard the buzzer and pulled the now unlocked door open.

Her eyes grew accustomed to the dim store interior. A small lamp on the counter illuminated only a pool of light on the green fabric mat the customers would look at their watches on. Xiang was sitting behind the counter in the gloom, cross-legged on a stool, knees up high.

She took in sight of the cigarette in an ashtray on the counter and at least two of his hulking lieutenants sitting at a respectful distance farther down the counter.

“Pao Lin, it is nice to see you today.” He looked at her in the gloom, his one eye looking odd under his dyed blonde shaggy hair. He had a lizard contact in his good eye. He was such an idiot teenager.

“Thanks for meeting me little brother Xiang.”

++++

She had texted her driver but had no text back from him. She was standing on the street in front of the mall feeling hot and sticky. She looked around for a coffee shop or somewhere she could sit to regroup.

Seeing her brother always made her feel bad and like she was about to be punished. Punished for wanting the connection with him.  Or maybe punished for having left him alone.

Well if she headed down a side street she could find somewhere to be out of the oppressive humidity. She checked her phone for recommendations. Too hard.

She’d just sit and have a cold drink in the mall.

Her phone beeped in her hand and died. God, now what. Unless her driver saw her walking she’d have no way of finding the car again. Well if she saw a cop she could ask to use their phone. She did have her ID in her purse she thought. Shit.

Her purse, which she had left in the watch shop on that chair. She stopped walking. She switched hands with her briefcase, rifling through her jacket pocket.

She had some cash she had stuffed in there when she was fighting with Ju over who would pay for coffee the day before. Thankfully enough to both get a drink and make a call. Hooray. Lucky her. Wrong place wrong time today.

She was standing back in front of the bus stops on Nathan Road. Hand in her pocket holding the bills, she started to turn around to head back to the watch shop, or maybe just to get her cold drink, or to look for her driver when she saw the backpack sitting on the step to the DVD store.

The same backpack she had been looking at for a week. She had grainy photos of the backpack from the earlier incident on her laptop. It was the same.

Everything seemed to slow down and stop. The crowd moved around her like water flowing. She stood in front

She turned her head after what felt like an age and caught sight of a uniformed cop across the street. She raised her hand to call out to him.

She was moving towards the sidewalk barrier, moving away from the backpack, trying to speed up. She turned her head towards the cop, he saw her waving and was starting to turn. Turning.

The bomb in the backpack went off. The force of the explosion hit her like a wave of concrete. It was so silent. Had she fallen? When she opened her eyes she was pressed up against the sidewalk barrier unsure.


	8. Blocking the Elephant's Eye

Ma looked around the karaoke bar. A crowd of white expats was laughing at one booth with something in front of them in tall glasses. Looked like bubble tea but it probably wasn’t.

Ma hadn’t been in this mall before. Second level mall KTV. Normally he didn't find himself in a karaoke bar, let alone such a low rent one.

The expats exploded into laughter again. A big blonde woman was the loud one.

He wondered what they were doing there. How would they have even found it. Ma had a hard time navigating the directions himself.

Two large lion statues turned their empty eyes on the dead mall aisle from their positions on either side of the glass entrance doors when he had finally found it. A thick necked guy sitting in a lawn chair at street level had asked Ma what he was doing here.

Ma explained. The guy sipped his tea and then setting the tea jar on the floor, stood up and told Ma how to get to the second level, pointing out how to find the escalator and where to turn when he got to the top.

There were no open stores on the ground floor. The stores were dark. Dead sticks in planter pots surrounded by brown curled leaves. Dust thick behind the roll down chain curtains on each storefront. Shadowy boxes. Stacks of furniture and open cash registers.  Ma didn't linger.

The power was out on the escalator. Ma thought about what he was doing while he walked up the stopped escalator to the second floor in the dim light of the dead mall. The escalator was like a long flight of stairs. Walking on a stopped escalator always made Ma feel off balance.

Ma had been looking for yet another fortune-teller. A psychic. He had tried texting Chee-Ming. No response.

Shi was the problem, he couldn’t ask her.

In desperation, Ma tried asking the uncle sitting at the front door of the apartment block. Uncle adjusted the wet towel around his neck, shuffled his flip flops and looked intensely at Ma who was squatting down next to him.

“Boy, what do you want a fortune teller for?”

“I’m having problems with my girlfriend.”

“That skinny girl? The one you bring home some nights? She’s good looking she is.”

“Love problems. I need advice.”

“Boy, did you try Temple Street, that night market?”

Ma nodded.

Uncle looked at him again. “Well my daughter likes someone called the Elephant. She works downtown. She knows about this stuff. She takes after her mother. Women are very superstitious. Her mother wouldn’t comb her hair without instructions from the spirits. Did you want to try them, boy?”

“Sure sure.”

Ma handed over his cellphone. He crouched by the front door of the apartment block watching the traffic and the people walking by in the heat while uncle called his daughter to get the details.

It took a while. The daughter was working and didn’t want to be interrupted or couldn’t be interrupted. Then they had a fight about why he was calling her at all. Finally uncle managed to get a word in edgewise and ask about the contact information for the Elephant. He stopped talking on the phone and waved his hand around, asking Ma for a paper and a pen.

Ma got up, looked around and found an old flyer on a pole and then a pencil stub in his pants pocket. It was too hot to wear his jacket and he was off work so he wasn’t prepared.

Uncle dictated the phone number and the directions from his daughter. Ma made the money sign with his fingers. Uncle nodded.

That brought about another round about conversation while uncle tried to ask about the cost. The daughter didn’t want to talk to her father about how much the psychic cost.

Uncle unceremoniously handed the phone back to Ma. He nodded at Ma, his face flushed from the heat and the conversation. Ma almost dropped the phone when uncle handed it to him abruptly.

“Wei.”

“Why do you want to see the Elephant?” The daughter’s voice was tinny on the other end. Maybe she worked in a restaurant. Ma could hear what sounded like kitchen noises.

“I’m having a love problem. I need advice.”

“Okay. The Elephant’s good. For romance and for relationships. I told my dad the directions to get there but I don’t want him to know how much I spend. You can’t tell him.”

“Sure sure.”

“$200 for the first session. It’s a bit longer. If you have a second session it’s shorter.”

“Sure.” Ma hear some yelling in the background.

“I have to go. Don't tell the Elephant I told you how to get there.”

She hung up. Uncle immediately wanted to know.

“So? How much is it?”

Ma said smoothly “$15. Sounds like a real bargain. Uncle where’s that paper?”

They looked at the directions together. Ma mopped his forehead with a handkerchief. He’d have to call a number and then get an appointment. He had an idea of the area but wasn’t sure where the psychic held their sessions. She had mentioned a mall on the other side of the city.

Uncle waited while Ma called the number and left a message. Ma put his phone back in his pants pocket.

“I have to wait. I guess someone calls me back.”

Uncle nodded and sucked his teeth.

Ma was getting hot. “I can’t stay out here uncle. I have to go find some a/c.”

“Good luck with your love life boy.”

Leaving uncle, he had gone to hang out in the supermarket with a/c near his apartment block while he was waiting for the fortune-teller to call him back.

His phone buzzed. Unknown caller. He answered.

“Wei.”

“You need an appointment?” The caller had a soft young sounding voice.

“Yes, my love life…” Ma stuttered a little and hesitated.

“Yes romance of course. I’ll text you the address. Once you get there talk to the guy in the lawnchair. You can have an appointment at midnight.”

“Okay. Nothing earlier?”

“No. Nothing earlier. Thanks Ma.”

“How do you know my name?”

“Caller ID.” The person hung up.

Ma looked at the phone. That was a little late but he’d just be tired tomorrow for work. That wasn’t new. He had a few hours to get something to eat and head over to the meeting spot.

+++++

Ma sat on the other side of the bar from the expats. They made him nervous. They seemed so comfortable, they would even order in Cantonese. He didn’t like speaking English but he could listen. Ma yawned.

The lights were low. No-one was singing in any of the booths. The bar had shiny mirrored walls and a lot of chrome.

They weren’t saying anything important. The blonde woman had just finished her appointment and appeared to be getting drunk. She was loudly recapping her session with the psychic. She had some real estate problem and a husband she was tired of.

The bartender called over to Ma. “You’re up Ma.” She waved Ma over to a mirrored door next to the bar counter. Ma noticed that the woman was wearing gloves. She waited until he came nearer to her and then held out her hand.

Ma pulled out his wallet. She nodded. He put two $100 dollar bills in her hand and looked at her. She signaled six with her other hand. He sighed and pulled out some more bills.

“That will do nicely.”

She opened the door for him and then closed it behind him with a click.

He was startled to see he was standing in an office. Bright fluorescent lighting. A desk, some visitor chairs. Filing cabinets lined the walls. Even a rug on the floor.

A youngish man sat behind the desk. He had a lidded china tea cup in front of him. He was carefully taking out the strainer with the leaves and placing it on the lid.

“Would you like me to read the tea leaves for you tonight? This cup is a very fancy pu’er that a client gave me. A nice Zhuancha brick.”

Ma sat in front of him and looked at the young man in front of him. A dark red shirt and a dark suit vest. A dark red tie. He looked cool and composed. The tea smelled fragrant and earthy.

He had bleached blond bangs covering what looked like a damaged eye. His other eye had some sort of contact in it. Ma frowned a little. The man’s eye looked like a snake’s with a sideways pupil.

“So Ma, tell me about your lady problems and what I can perhaps see for you in the future.” The Elephant smiled at him and then sipped his tea.


	9. Xiang (象)

The Elephant led him through some questions about Shi. And some questions about himself. Ma thought it was stupid. He felt like he was in a job interview. Where was the incense? He decided he actually preferred the snakes at Temple Street Night Market.

Maybe the trappings of spiritualism were useful to the ambiance. But did they have any effect on the reading? The Elephant supplied some of the answers himself. Shi was anxious. Ma was having insomnia.

Ma wondered if it was so obvious to everyone. Then the Elephant stopped talking and looked at Ma more closely with his good eye. The snake contact lens was distracting.

“You are having dreams though.”

Ma nodded.

“And you find they are following you even when you are awake.”

He nodded again. Ma started to feel uncomfortable. Would he talk about the dust? Did he already know?

The Elephant leaned forward across the desk. Stretching out one hand, he stroked down Ma’s cheek. He turned his fingers towards Ma, his fingertips covered in pale brown smears.

“Dust.” The Elephant smiled.

Ma sat stoically. What more was there to say.

The Elephant sat back in his chair and wiped his fingertips off on a pale handkerchief that appeared from nowhere. Setting the cloth aside, he pushed his incongruous floppy blonde bangs off his face.

Ma was startled to see the wounded eye was a scarred and empty eye socket. The Elephant reached into a vest pocket and retrieved what looked like a large marble. He rolled it in his fingertips for a moment.

“Would you like me to look into the dust problem you are having? It isn’t really connected to your love problems. Perhaps the romance issues are a result rather than the cause.” The Elephant cocked his head on the side. Looking very much like a teenager again he held the marble still in his fingers.

Ma nodded.

The psychic tucked the marble into his eye socket in a fluid motion. And then looked again at Ma.

Ma was sitting uncomfortably in the office chair. As they made eye contact, Ma felt immediately clammy. The temperature in the office seemed to drop. The sweat at the base of his spine became icy. Ma could swear he could see his breath in little clouds. His chairback became hard and unyielding behind him.

The Elephant’s marble eye was a dark red coal. Ma felt like it was looking through him. Like an xray. To see through to his bones. The rest of the room darkened around the burning red point.

The Elephant was making little clicking noises. Humming a bit. Then as if something caught his attention and he stopped still for a moment. His mouth made a little o and he lowered his gaze.

“You didn’t tell me that when you set up the appointment.”

Ma was startled. “Pardon?”

“You neglected to tell me something very important. Are you spying on me?”

Ma was unable to speak.

The Elephant was getting a bit testy.

“Is she spying on me now? You drive her. You drove her today. I have an appointment with her tomorrow, could she not wait for that scheduled time?”

“I’m sorry I don’t know what you mean. I don't know what-”

The Elephant cut him off. “Regardless. You should have told me.” He looked up again at Ma. The marble eye was now dark. The room had returned to normal light and temperature.

“I’ll have to see about this. Apologies but although you have a very interesting problem both in your love life and in your dreams, I just cannot believe that she would send her horse to spy on me.”

“Do you mean my boss? The detective I have been driving?”

‘Of course that’s who I mean. Pao. Pao is cheating. I will see to her tomorrow when we meet. She will have to explain it to me then.”

He took the marble eye out of its socket and wiped it carefully with the cloth, then he dropped the eye back into a pocket. He waved his hands.

Ma tried again, “You know Pao? Is she a client of yours?”

Silently the door to the office opened behind Ma. Two women stood behind him suddenly. He twisted in his seat to see them. Gloved hands grabbed his shoulders in an iron grip forcing him to a standing position.

“Take the horse away. I need to make some arrangements for seeing Pao tomorrow.” And with that, the psychic turned away from Ma, spinning his chair, already dialing a cell phone he took from the desktop.

Ma was manhandled by the ladies into what felt like a broom closet. He was unceremoniously shoved in and the door was shut firmly behind him. There was a fluorescent bulb mounted horizontally by the door lighting up the space.

Ma felt a sink or a shelf behind him. He twisted around to look at the tiny room. He was pressed up against file boxes with a dry janitors sink on the other side. No window, just an air vent too high to reach even if he stood on something. The file boxes were wrapped closed in so much tape they looked white

He slouched down and checked his cell phone still in its plastic bag. No bars.

Ma was confused. So the psychic knew Pao. In a city this size it seemed very random. He didn’t think that Pao had mentioned seeing the Elephant to him. And even if she had there didn’t seem to be any connection between them.

Something had made the Elephant very mad. Ma thought he would never get an answer to the dust issue. If he was more superstitious he would have already started to panic. Three people straight out of central casting for mysterious and dramatic characters had already made odd pronouncements to him that he was unable to make any sense of.

He figured out that if he turned around and moved a box over a bit, he could sit down. He leaned his head against the sink and turned his face away from the light. He was exhausted. It felt like forever since he had closed his eyes. Lack of control had never felt so easy.

++++

The light was dim in the watch store. Pao was waiting for Xiang to speak to her. He seemed older but then again she hadn’t seen him for a while. He still looked like a teenager to her. He was still fooling around with his hair and wearing those stupid contacts.

She wanted to ask him if he was alright, if he could come and see her when he wasn’t working. She still had many questions for him about his powers. And why he thought she didn’t have any.

He was sitting behind the counter looking at her with a pissed off look on his face. His bangs were down, she didn’t think he had his glass eye in. She didn’t mind. It was the way she remembered him as a child. Also he looked much farther when he had it in place.

Pao cleared her throat.

Xiang said sharply, “What did you want from me today? Information will cost you.” He stroked a finger up and down the moisture on the side of a beer glass sitting on a coaster.

Pao nodded and agreed with him in her most placating manner. Don't set him off don’t set him off, she thought to herself. She wondered if her worry showed on her face. He didn't have the eye in so maybe he hadn’t noticed.

Xiang tightened his smile. “So?”

Pao began the spiel she had prepared in her head on the drive over. That she was looking for information and that they didn’t have any leads and could he think about helping-. Xiang cut her off.

“Maybe. But only because we are blood relatives. Otherwise no. Solve the crime yourselves. I can provide some insight. But you will owe me.”

Pao agreed. Ju would just have to pay whatever costs Xiang asked.

“I think you have no leads because it is not clear why this is occurring. You have to look for the pattern.”

“We’ve only found one bomb so far. Well only one that has gone off that is.”

“Well, keep looking.” He took a sip of beer.

“Have you heard anything? Little brother, would you share that information with me if you knew?”

He put the glass down again and shook his head.

“There is a good chance the answer would be yes. I am not seeing any leads at the moment. I have an idea of where to start. You could ask for Zu. I believe he is with the PTU at the moment.”

“But he is the source that knows nothing. Really it is him? We talked to him already without much success.”

“Ask him the right questions and he will provide you with the right answers.”

“I thought he was just lying to get out of jail.”

“You were wrong. You’ll need to make sure the PTU is not watching me.”

“I’m not sure I can make that happen. I can talk to Ju. See what he can do.”

Xiang clucked, “Him again? Are you wearing that amulet? Maybe I need to refresh it if he is getting so close to you. I can deal with him. Yes talk to him. And I want some tea – a kilo or two of a red tea I saw online. And a motorbike.”

Pao nodded, Xiang didn't always want money, he seemed to have enough of that. She thought he should just buy himself these little items. He didn’t need any of these things.

Xiang wasn’t finished. “I have something that belongs to you. Have you noticed anything missing Pao Lin?”

“No. I haven’t noticed anything yet. What do you have of mine?”

“I'll let you find out later.”

Pao sighed always with the games. Her brother hadn’t changed that much even with the new career. An alarm went off. The phone on the counter was buzzing.

Xiang sighed and said “Time’s up older sister.”

One of Xiang’s guys stood up to escort her back out of the store.

“Oh and Pao? You will lose something that belongs to you shortly. Here is some free advice today. Take care of your belongings.”


	10. Pinned

Ju was holding her hand. That was awkward. Pao didn't remember meeting him today. Had she fallen asleep at the café table? Maybe she had caught Ma’s exhaustion.

She sat up. Her head was killing. She was sitting on the sidewalk. Propped up against a storefront. Ju was kneeling in front of her. He was looking away from her, at an ambulance driving down the street, but he was holding her hand actually quite tightly.

She moved. Glass crunched under her. Ju’s head snapped back to face her.

“So Pao Lin, you are a bit harder to kill it seems than someone thought.”

She looked at him and tested out her arms to see if they still worked. She brushed herself off and moved to sit up. Ju steadied her and they stood up.

He looked concerned.

“Can you hear me?”

Pao looked at his face again. She couldn’t quite understand.

“I can’t hear you.”

“Are you hurt?”

“I can't hear you. I’m sorry.” Pao tried to touch her face, her arm was stiff but she did manage to brush her hair off her face.

“I’ve found your purse and bag.” Ju held them up. “I can hang on to them. Can you walk? Walk with me.”

Pao saw he had her purse in his hand. She thought she had left her purse in the watch store she had met her brother in. She waved at Ju. Holding out her hand and pointing, he stopped and held up the purse. “This?”

She took the purse. It had a deep scratch in the buttery leather. She had bought the purse a while ago. It was her professional purse. Part of her professional costume.

She looked inside. Yes. The item her brother had given her was still inside. She didn’t know how the purse had gotten from there to here. But she didn’t care. As long as she had that heavy drawstring bag she was okay.

Ju touched her arm. He had been speaking to her. Her ears were ringing a little. A buzzing sound at the side of her consciousness. It was like watching tv with a child turning the volume up just a little and then turning it down again while the Water Margin was on. Like her brother did to her every episode for weeks.

She looked at Ju. She tried to say clearly “Can we leave here? Do we have to stay here?”

Ju looked around and waved at a uniform standing next to a car. Ju said something to Pao and then turned and walked over to the cop.

Pao looked first in her purse. She touched the bag with a fingertip and then closed the purse, tucking is more snugly under her arm.

Then she looked at the plate glass window of the electronics store she was standing in front of. There was a large crack running across the window. The display was mostly still standing but there was a low waterline of dust spread over the merchandise boxes. And all the TV screens were dark.

Ju appeared next to her again. “We can go.” He said.

Pao shook her head and tried to tap her ear, “I can’t hear you. But I seem to be okay.”

Ju resorted to hand signals. Go. That direction. Focus. Careful. Watch out. On your left.

They picked their way across the street. Pao noticed that there was a small scorched spot on the wall, stairs and sidewalk in front of what she thought had been a glassy book store on the main floor of the mall.

The damage here was small. It looked different to her than the first transit station bomb.

Her ears started ringing more intensely. Ju was taking them somewhere, inside the perimeter but away from the shopping centre.

The bus stops looked fine. He sat her down on the bench. He stuck his sharp face close to her. He turned her face back and forth, looking for what she didn’t know. He tucked her hair behind her ear. He patted her hand clutching the purse.

Ju was on the phone.

She pulled out her own phone. Oddly on her list, she had a text from Ma. She scrolled down and opened it but there was nothing there. It said nothing. It was blank. She looked at the screen. She didn’t understand what Ma was up to.

She checked some other messages. She wondered if she should try to get in contact with her brother. Although she had an idea that he would have know this would happen.

She scrolled back up to Ma’s message. She flicked the reply button. ‘Are you ok? Where are you? Can I come get you?’ Send.

Ju was tapping her on the arm. Go. Careful.

They moved off to the side of the scene. An ambulance attendant in a reflective vest waved some fingers in front of her eyes and looked in her ears with a small light. Ju slipped him a couple of hundreds. The attendant pocketed the notes, signed off on a small paper on his clipboard and handed it over. Ju tucked the note back in her purse with a smile.

They walked a bit more slowly once out of the perimeter. Ju kept signing. Left. Go. Look left.

Pao wondered if she was actually injured. Ju appeared to have a plan.

They crossed one more street and entered a doorway next to a darkened restaurant. Ju signed. Ok? To go up?

Pao nodded. They started up the dark narrow worn stairs.

At the top, under a bare lightbulb in the hall, Ju checked his pockets for keys. He unlocked one of the doors at the top of the stairs.

Pao was surprised at the room inside. Ju closed the door behind them and shepherded Pao to a small couch. She sat.

The room had no window. It had a couch and a chair. It was hot. She thought she could see a small bathroom to the right of a kitchen counter. There was a small pile of books on the counter, a laptop, his uniform hat. There was nothing else in the room.

Ju had turned on a fluorescent strip that ran down the side of the doorframe. The light cast the room into stark light and shadowed spaces. Her ears were still ringing but she was hearing Ju’s voice. Just his voice in a cotton wool vacuum.

Ju had taken off his jacket and hung it up on a hanger, replacing the hanger on a hook in the wall. He turned on a fan on the floor that she hadn’t noticed and opened a small window high on the kitchen counter wall that was hidden behind a curtain. The air barely moved.

Ju turned the chair around and sat in front of her with his arms on the back. He pulled up his pant legs before he sat down to preserve the creases.

She set her purse down on the floor. Her foot hit something under the couch, a suitcase. He stretched out one long leg and from his chair, slid the suitcase back discretely under the furniture.

“Do you live here?” Pao thought her voice was probably too loud.

Ju nodded. He rubbed at his eyes with long fingers.

“What can you hear now?”

“I can hear you but you are low and there’s an echo.” She trailed off and started again. “Why is this like a jail cell? Why do you live here?”

Ju shrugged. He made a motion with his hands that could really mean anything.

Pao thought she heard Ju say “Did you need food?” but she wasn’t sure.

She stood up and with minimal staggering, walked towards the tiny bathroom. She wanted to check something. Ju just sat.

She slid the door closed behind her. Much like an airplane bathroom there was only room to stand or use the toilet. No sink. A tin enameled mug with an ugly flower. A washrag hanging from a hook on the plumbing pipes. It felt like she was visiting a senior citizen.

There was a mirror propped up behind the washbowl. Pao pulled up her blouse, it had felt like she had glass in her skin. She just had an abrasion, wide across her hip and up her ribcage.

Dropping her blouse, she unscrewed cap of the 2L bottle of water standing next to the washbowl. She splashed some water on her face and tried to wash her hands. Soot or maybe it was dust swirled off when she rinsed.

She turned awkwardly and found a rag to dry her hands. She looked once more into the mirror and then resolutely turned to go back to Ju. He needed to answer some questions for her right now.

She slid the door open and here eye went to Ju, crouching next to the couch. His one hand in her purse, the other hand holding the drawstring bag from Xiang. He turned his head to her.

“The brave hunter gets bitten. I should have been more nervous and waited.” He held up the drawstring bag to her. “Can we speak about this?”

Pao was angry. But that feeling dissipated quickly. “That is mine from a family member. Nothing to do with any case.” She wondered if she was shouting.

Ju started to unwrap the object. “Well, can we have a look?”

She moved over the few steps and grabbed the bag from Ju. “I will unwrap it.”

Standing over Ju, Pao carefully unwrapped a small figurine of a horse mid jump. Perhaps made of clay. Not painted but burnished almost. She held it up.

“What do you want with this Ju? My brother gave it to me yes but it has nothing to do with the case.”

“And the fact that you were blown up after meeting him means what? Nothing to do with the case?”

Ju was quite close to her, he was sitting on the edge of the couch. His face intent on hers.

She concentrated on rewrapping the horse figurine. “I want to lie down. Get off the couch.”

Ju stood up. “I guess you are fine. As bitchy as always. I’ll give you a couple of hours.” He moved back to the chair watching her. She placed her purse first on the couch and then laid her head on it.

“Stay out of my stuff Ju.” She closed her eyes. “I’ll need to get some new clothes when I wake up. These smell like smoke.”

She thought she heard Ju chuckling but she wasn’t sure she could hear. Maybe she had imagined that having heard it so often.


	11. Hobbling the Horse's Leg

Ma. Ma. He thought he heard his name being called. His neck was stiff. His forehead hit something solid. He woke up fully when he realized he was still in the closet.

The light in the closet was now out. He was sitting in the dark. He stretched out his legs as far as he could in the tiny space. Then he realized that his pocket was buzzing. It appeared he had phone service again. He straightened up and touched his forehead. All in one piece. Then he checked his phone still in its plastic bag.

A text from Pao. He held his phone in his hand. He didn’t know if he wanted to reply. He could text the KTV address and see if she could come get him out. The Elephant seemed to know her. He used his phone screen to check the inside of the broom closet.

He found the light bulb but there was no switch to turn it on. He thought about that.

He moved his hands around the frame, standing awkwardly to reach as far up as he could. Not sure what he was looking for exactly but he needed to stretch. He wanted not to panic. He needed to not panic.

His fingers slid into the doorframe around the latch on the outside. He shook the door slightly. Trying to be quiet. He thought he could maybe unlatch the door from inside if he had something to use as a tool.

He returned his hand to the fluorescent tube. He found the cord running up into the darkness above him. He tugged on the cord experimentally. It seemed loose, stapled to the wall but wired in somewhere he couldn’t get to.

He checked his pockets one more time. Nothing there but the phone, the flyer with the KTV address, his chess piece and a small pencil stub. Pencil.

Ma took the pencil and experimentally stuck it where he thought the latch might be the front of the door. He could feel something move. He put his head as flat on the door as he could. Listening. He heard nothing. He crouched down and tried to see through the crack of the door. Nothing. No movement, no real light. He thought the hallway had no windows but a light might be on farther down.

 

He tried again, carefully poking with the pencil through the door, lifting up something on the other side of the door. He felt something move slightly. With a click the door swung open and he fell forward sprawling on the floor.

He stood up. Ma put the pencil back in his pocket and dusted off his knees. He stopped to catch his breath.

No-one was in the hallway. He was in a hallway behind the KTV lounge. Rolling racks of kitchen equipment and some laundry bags were against the wall. A metal door was at the end of the hall.

He walked towards the door and took his phone in his hand. The door opened with a clunk. It opened into a cement stairwell, he headed down hoping to find the ground floor. He’d text Pao when he got out of the building maybe she would know why this was happening.

+++

Pao woke up from a very strange dream of a desert, horses and a figure she could only see from far away. Her back felt terrible. She remembered why she hated sleeping on a couch. She was gripping her purse under her head in one hand.

Ju was standing at the small counter, his back to her. He was wearing uniform pants and holding his shirt in his hand. He seemed to be ironing.

“Do you even iron in your sleep Ju?”

Pao sat up and straightened her shirt.

Ju turned around.

“How was your sleep? Can you hear me now?”

Pao had a dull ringing in her ears but she could hear him.

“This really your apartment? This is grim.”

Ju looked at her. “I don't really care about where I live. You know I’m never really home. A friend gave me a good deal.”

“This should be free I think. Anyway. I have to find my driver. He didn’t answer my text yesterday. I had to use a different guy to go see my brother.”

Ju laughed, “That sleepy horse guy? Where did you lose him?”

Pao sat still. Yes. She had lost him. “I think my brother took him.”

She took out her phone, scrolled through her texts and found her message to Ma.

She texted him again.

+++

Ma came out of the stairwell without encountering a problem. He hit the bar and the door at the bottom of the stairwell opened. He found himself behind the building.

A couple of young guys in dirty aprons were working, taking out garbage to a dumpster. One, crouched down by the curb, had a five gallon bucket of water he was dumping in the street.

Ma nodded in their direction and kept on going. If the Elephant wanted him back, he was a psychic after all. Ma didn’t think he could hide from him.

Ma’d find a bus or minbus back to his apartment in Tai Po. He did remembered where he was dropped off what felt like days ago but was probably only a few hours. He started walking back to the street he had entered the mall from. There was a problem. He checked his pockets again. No cash.

Now there was another problem. The apron guys were following him and one had a phone at their ear.

Ma was not used to being important. He wasn’t familiar with the neighbourhood but he did remember a transit terminal that he had come in to. Maybe he could lose the aprons there.

He sped up his pace. The phone guy kept up but the other dropped back. Either to return to the KTV place or to try and cut him off somewhere.

Ma wondered if he could get Pao to pick him up somehow, The driver being driven. Ma caught a glimpse of the top of the station another block away. He headed that way almost running. If he could get on a bus that was leaving then apron would have to give up.

He saw what looked like a bus that had an express sign to MK. That would do.

+++

Pao wondered where Ma was that he wasn’t responding to her text. She had sent one to her brother but it looked like he was ignoring her now.

Her phone buzzed in her purse on the floor. Ju was still sitting on the chair. She was still sitting on the couch. She tugged her crumpled skirt down a little and reached for her phone.

Ju stretched out his arm faster. “It’s your driver.”

“My driver? Give me that phone.” Pao snatched it back from him.

She checked the text. “He says he had been kidnapped by a fortuneteller and is coming back to MK on a bus.”

“Never a dull moment with your driver. Do you believe him?”

Pao had a sinking feeling. “Actually I do this time. I'll have to check with Ma. I need the name of that fortuneteller.”

Ju smiled, “You thinking you know him? The fortuneteller who kidnaps your driver?”

“I was just saying I thought that it might be my brother. I didn’t know he was doing that psychic thing again.”

“Or the kidnapping thing?”

Pao didn't answer him. “Can we go meet his bus? I want to talk to him.”

“Sure sure. Happy to help your lost driver overcome a kidnapping. If he needs food we have to buy some. I don’t keep food here in this place.”

“Noodles.”

“Pardon me? You want noodles?”

“No no.” Pao waved her hands, “Ma likes noodles.”


	12. Dust (塵埃)

Ma got off the mini bus.  He had his phone in his hand. He stood off to the side of the stop. He looked around but didn’t see Pao.

He had fallen asleep on the bus dreaming of his apartment this time. He opened his eyes to the floor of his apartment and then felt like he had fallen off his bed and onto the floor. His head hurt in the dream. He was crammed between the bed and the window.

The window was open, the curtain touching the end of the bed as it moved in the cold breeze. Cold not hot. Not humid. Couldn’t be HK he was dreaming about.

In his dream, he got up and moved the two steps to the tiny bathroom. It looked like a hotel bathroom he had once stayed in during University before he dropped out.

He looked in the odd dusty bathroom mirror as he splashed water on his face. His lower face was slightly tanned, a paler forehead with a light line of dust where a hat might have sat low on his forehead. He had a reddish purple bruise on the side of his face, he guessed from the floor. He ran a hand over his hair. Dust.

He was already late for his work start time. He grabbed a shirt from a hanger in the shower stall and put it on as he gargled with mouthwash. Can you be late in a dream?

He seemed to have fallen asleep in his pants. He found socks and his shoes and ran out the door. He shook the dust out of his shoes before trying to put his shoes on in the elevator down to the lobby. The dust filled the bottom of the elevator and started to seep down the crack between the doors.

He’d never make it over there in time for her pickup. He was panicking. He didn’t know where the car was. He didn’t know where the pickup location was. He was going to get fired this time for sure. Just as the elevator reached the lobby, he bumped his head on the seat in front of him in the minibus and woke up with a start.

He had left a small sweep of dust across the floor of the minibus by his seat at the back. The driver gave him a stern talking to. “You bum, why can’t you keep your dirt to yourself. Everything you touch turns to dust. I have to clean that up you know.”

He stepped off the bus with the driver’s words ringing in his ears following him out onto the street. He didn’t have dust in his heart. Everything he touched turned to dust.

He felt his head. He did have a bruise in that spot now. He felt tired.

He wasn’t sure that he wanted to meet up Pao even though he had asked for her help. Last week she had said, “Ma, you are an idiot.” She had told him to go home and see a doctor before he came back on Monday. Then the Elephant had kidnapped him because of her. Some fortuneteller.

He wasn’t sure what to do now. He needed a second opinion. Or a third actually if you were counting fortunes. The Elephant and the Snake had not been helpful. The Snake had been free but the Elephant had cost him plenty. And all for nothing. His eye landed on a food cart parked by the minibuses. Suddenly he had an idea.

He didn’t have time to go back to work right now. He made a deal with himself. If he saw Pao, he’d go with her. If he didn’t see Pao he’d go find Auntie Noodle lady. She seemed mysterious. He patted his pockets. He found the small round wooden chess piece in his pants.

He made his decision when he still couldn’t see Pao anywhere around the bus stop. The Elephant knew her. Maybe she was causing this dust problem.

As he took off down the street from the bus area, he told himself that if she had just been there when he got off the minibus, he would have stayed. If she had phoned him he would have waited.

He needed to find the cart noodle Auntie but he couldn’t seem to find her. He remembered that she had introduced herself as Jiuwiehu. He held the wooden chess piece in his fingers in his pocket. He would find her.

Back on the street by the café, he asked the phone card guy. But the guy was wearing headphones and didn’t seem to know anything about anything. Phone card guy just nodded and said “sure man: to any question Ma asked him. Ma turned from him in irritation followed by a “sure man” into the street.

Ma stood in the street. He looked around again. He had sat there. The cart had been over there. He had walked over from that direction and returned to the café from that corner.

He was hot. His shirt was sticking to his back. He had sweat trickling down the sides of his face. He brushed it away with the hand not in his pocket. He looked briefly at his fingertips. Dusty.

He asked a fruit stall lady if she knew Auntie Jiu. She nodded, bobbing her head. “Sure sure. Noodles.” A slightly grimy kid with a runny nose stood behind the counter. “Auntie Jiu is a fox,” the kid said wiping its nose on its sleeve. “I’ve seen her tails.”

The fruit lady laughed, “Auntie Jiu doesn’t make noodles everyday. And she doesn’t have anyone to take the cart out when she’s resting. She’s at home. I have the address if you want it. Do you have a pencil?”

Ma offered her the pencil stub from his pocket. The fruit lady smiled and then handed Ma a scrap of an old 2002 calendar that she had written the address on in careful printing. “Her place isn’t so far from here.”

The snotty kid said “Auntie Jiu is very very old.” Ma looked at the address. He wavered. He should call or text Pao. She might be worried. He was so fired.

But then he looked at the ripped piece of the calendar in his fingers and made a decision he hoped he wouldn’t regret. He’d go see Auntie Jiu now and find Pao later.

+++++

Ma had wandered around the neighbourhood for a while. He looked up at the washing on the crammed balconies and the many wires between the buildings and then looked down at the massed parked bicycles on the corner. He worried about finding the Noodle Auntie.

Finally he found what looked like it might be her building. There was no-one to ask. The street was deserted. The lobby door was unlocked. Ma rang the bell numbered on the paper scrap, pressing with a finger, feeling a certain sense of dread and leaving a single dusty fingerprint on the button. He was actually hoping that no one would answer the door.

The intercom crackled. “Yes?” said the querulous voice of a little old lady from the speaker.

Ma cleared his throat nervously, “Yes. Pardon me, Auntie Jiu? This is Ma. We met before and I think I am lost and I was wondering if you…”

The buzzer on the door sounded before he had completed his sentence.

Ma sighed and pushed the heavy inside entrance door open. He stood at the bottom of the stairs and checked the paper with the apartment address again. Then he began the slow walk up to the fourth floor.

Auntie Jiu had somehow prepared food while he was on the stairs. She greeted him at the door with a grinning toothy smile and then ushered him into the room. She was very short. He sat on a small stool around a low table as she brought out tiny dishes of different tasty looking things.

Ma’s stomach growled. He didn’t remember when he had last eaten. He was all confused after escaping the Elephant’s broom closet. Auntie Jiu just laughed at him and kept setting out dishes.

Pickles and meat, long beans, green shoots, an omlette, duck, tea chicken, noodles, dried fruits and a salted fish. Ma ate a bit, licking his chopsticks, trying a few portions of this and that, trying not to eat too much and leave the best parts for the old lady but he was failing.

Auntie Jiu wasn’t talking. As he idled with his lunch he looked more closely at her. She was bundled up in her plain dark padded clothes, just no apron. A complicated necklace was showing at the throat of her jacket.

She was still wearing the dark old-fashioned head wrap tied as if she had small triangular ears on either side of her head. Her lined face was darkened as if she had been in bright sun.

She had on woolen fingerless gloves, her fingernails slightly reddish with dark cuticles. She was very bundled up on such a hot day. Her apartment was cool, somehow cooler than it should be. Ma couldn’t hear an air conditioner and none of the windows appeared to be open.

Ma knew he should be afraid of her but for some reason he wasn’t. He put his chopsticks down on his bowl and reached into his pocket and took out the wooden token she had given him.

Running his fingers on the worn colourless character on the wooden piece, he asked her, “What is happening to me? Can you tell me about the dust? And that place?” He looked up at her again.

“What do you think Ma?” She asked with a toothy smile and snagged a piece of meat with her chopsticks. A skinny duck leg went in her mouth and came out a bare bone. She dropped it into the pretty little pink flowered saucer she was using as a bone dish and then she looked up at him with twinkling black eyes."What do the horses tell you when you hear them on the wind?"


	13. Birds (鳥)

Pao was still sitting on the couch in Ju’s crummy room, Ju had gone out to get her some new clothes. Her skirt was dirty and ripped. Even her shoes were trash. She had thrown the shoes over by the door. She didn’t want to sit on the hard couch in her underwear so she had the washrag over her face, her head lying on the couch back, trying to ignore the feeling of the grit from the scene still on her skin.

Ju had offered to go get her some clothes before they went to meet Ma. It felt like it had taken forever for him to return. Where he was going to get her clothing at this time of day she had no idea.

After a while there was a knock at the door and she opened it. He stepped inside holding a plastic bag in one hand and a pair of running shoes in the other.

“You should have asked me who I was before you opened it. I could have been anyone.”

“But Ju, no-one knows I’m here, only you know I’m here.”

Ju made that exasperated ‘che’ sound Pao knew so well. “I guess your ears feel better now.”

“I still feel a bit underwater. I have a headache if that counts.”

He handed her the bag and the shoes and steered her to the bathroom. The door slid shut behind her.

She called out, “Leave my purse alone you thief.” She set the shoes in the washbasin and then she looked in the bag.

A tshirt with an anime character of a peanut, a pair of nondescript dark pants. Pink socks. It looked like it all would fit. The clothes still had the tags on. She took off her burned clothes and tried not to look in the mirror at the purpling abrasions on her sides.

She was still wearing the amulet on a red thread Xiang had given her. She pulled it down to straighten it out on the string and the thread snapped. She pulled it off her neck in frustration.

Xiang would need to get her a better amulet if he wanted to protect her from Ju. This little folded paper in cheap red fabric wasn’t doing a thing. She tucked it into a pocket of the tshirt. She couldn’t bring herself to throw it away. She had so few things from her brother.

It was awkward changing clothes in the tiny room. She had knocked her elbow against the wall getting out of her clothes. She stood on the old clothes as she pulled on the pants. A bit to big but she could manage. She looked into the mirror. She took a deep breath and decided she couldn’t hide in here any longer.

She slid the bathroom door open and kicked her old clothes out. Bending down to pick up the pile she noticed the suitcase under the couch again.

“Where do you keep your clothes? There isn’t anything here.”

She added the burned clothes to the shoe pile by the door.

Ju was sitting on the chair again. He was combing his fingers through his hair.

“I don’t keep much here. I have a locker at work, only a few things there.”

Pao had no idea what was going on with Ju, why he seemed to be hanging around her or why he was hiding in his crummy room.

They had waited for the minibus but Ma hadn’t shown up at the bus stop. Or they had been delayed and he had left. Or he had been taken again by whoever was chasing him before they got there.

She didn’t have anything new on her phone. Ju asked her to text him again but he hadn’t answered.

Out of ideas they walked back to his room. It was too early to go to the office. Barely dawn.

They were sitting back in his Spartan room. Ju had stopped off at the OK and gotten them something to drink.

She sat on the couch again next to her purse, this time holding a sweating bottle of water.

“Ju, how am I going to get my driver back from my brother?”

“Maybe I should ask why did he want your driver in the first place?”

“I don’t know how they connected. I saw Xiang yesterday. I had an appointment. But Ma was already missing. I had to have a different driver take me to MK.”

“How did Xiang know your driver?”

“I didn’t know that he did know Ma. Ma only drove for me for a little while. I liked him so I kept booking his car. I never saw Xiang with Ma, Ma never took me to meet Xiang.”

“Xiang seems to know him now. What has Xiang been doing lately? Perhaps Ma ran across him in some other context.”

“Ju. You know I have no idea what Xiang is doing. I don’t talk to him about work. His or mine.”

So do we know when Ma went missing? I saw him at the café when he wandered off. Then he took you back to headquarters. You sure he didn’t just wander off now?”

“In his text he said he was kidnapped. I don't think he is the type to lie.”

“One man lies, one hundred repeat it as truth. We need a different person who saw him after you. Where does Ma live?”

“I don't know.” Pao felt embarrassed.

Ju looked back at her. “You want me to call someone? I can call someone to fix this.”

“You are certainly a public servant of the people, Ju. How much will it cost me to find a lost driver?”

He bent down and slid the suitcase out from under the couch. When he opened it, Pao saw it was completely filled with money.

“In every crisis there is an opportunity. Your problem isn't so complex. I can start with the driver’s break room or that adjutant who schedules the drivers. Shall we go back to your office? I just need to put on the rest of my uniform.”

Ju had been wearing his uniform pants and a short sleeved uniform shirt. He didn’t look like they had already been out in the heat. She felt wilted from just sitting still.

He turned around with his belt and tie in his hands, his baton, radio and holster piled up on the tiny counter. He added a few stacks of banded bills to the counter from the suitcase.

Pao got her purse and rechecked it for her ID, wallet, phone and the drawstring bag. She touched the heavy horse figure with her fingertips through the cloth bag in her purse. She eyed his crisp uniformed back bisected by his Sam Browne belt as he finished putting himself in order.

He reached up and retrieved his hat from a hook. He ran his fingers through his hair. He didn’t put on his hat.

“Ju, you know I need to go home first. Then I can go to Headquarters.”

He turned to her, bangs curling over his forehead. He tapped his hat.

“Okay Pao, we’ll take a taxi. It’s faster.” He tucked his hat under his arm and took out his phone.

She noticed that Ju didn't ask where she lived when he phoned for the taxi, just gave the address to the dispatcher.

She followed him down the narrow staircase, wondering why he was so tied to her now. Her tired mind flashed with a web of multiple thin red strings connecting Ju to her hands, arms, legs and feet. Not threads as in working a puppet but moving independently and connected.

She didn’t seem to be able to get rid of Ju and she wasn’t sure she wanted to any more.

+++

The cab pulled up to her building and she let Ju pay. He was the one with the stacks of cash.

He followed her into the lobby, she pulled out her keys to unlock the inner door but it was already open.

Ju frowned. Pao told him to relax, sometimes the door didn’t latch behind someone coming or going. They waited for the elevator without really talking. Pao hadn’t had many visitors to this apartment yet. She held on to her purse tightly. It would be alright to have him there.

The elevator lurched to a stop. Her floor. The walked down the hallway to her door. She unlocked it and kicked off her shoes as they entered. The running shoes Ju had found her at 4AM surprisingly fit her well.

She put her purse down and turned on a few lights in the apartment.

Ju stood behind her in the hall. He toed off his shoes and stood in his sock feet. He was looking past her into the small lounge area of her apartment.

The lights spotlighted a few pieces of furniture she had received when her parents had died. A large dark wooden temple altar took up almost an entire wall. A massive celadon lidded vase sat to one side of the window, it was at least one and half meters high.

She walked into the lounge and sat on a low padded chaise. She patted the yellow silk upholstery and looked back at him.

He stood by the window looking at the curtains, reaching out to touch one with a hesitant finger. The fabric was actually a thick tapestry temple wall hanging of a Nehan scene, the death of the Buddha.

Ju for the first time looked maybe nervous to her. “Is this Japanese? You have a temple in here.”

“Just some antiques. Have a seat. I want to show you the statue from my brother. I need to ask you something.”

She put her purse on the chaise and pulled out the cloth bag. “So Xiang gave me this. He said it was to represent someone or something that is important to me. I was not to lose it. But that I would lose it.” She stroked the back of the horse and one curved front leg.

“He told me that I would lose something. He gave me a statue of a horse. I thought it was wood. But it was too heavy for wood.”

“This is bronze. Should you have this thing? I think this is very old. Is Xiang dealing in stolen art now?” Ju had reached out a hand and also stroked the curves of the horse. “Eastern Han. Matafeiyan.”

Ju paused and then continued, “Surely you see the connection with Ma. What was the driver to you?”

Pao handed him the horse. “He was just my driver for a while. I enjoyed his company. Nothing else. And I only went to Xiang now because you asked me to. He actually told me to go talk to Zu, your lying source. He didn’t say anything to me about Ma or my driver.”

“Your brother is a cypher. He does have a gift for prediction.”

“Ju you sell him short, he is a fortuneteller. He tells the future.”

“Well then Pao Lin, we need to go talk to a number of people today including Zu as directed by the fortuneteller.” Ju stood up with the horse in his hands, “Where can I safely put this? I’m afraid to keep in in my hands.”

Pao waved him over to a white shelf above the altar. There was a shell and an intricate prayer wheel, Ju placed the horse on the shelf gently between them.

“I need to get some things to take to the office. Please wait here.”

She went around a paper calligraphy screen and entered her bedroom. She went to a tea chest on top of a set of lacquered wood drawers and put the little broken amulet in it. She shut the lid firmly, not wanting to think about her brother.

She idly thought about changing her clothes but decided not to. She was startled by Ju behind her exclaiming about her bedroom. “Holy shit. You have a canopy wedding bed.”

Pao frowned at him. “So? You sleep on a couch.”

“God Pao, how can you afford this furniture on your salary? I thought I was in over my head. But a better question is how did you get this thing in here? Did you take it apart and reassemble it?”

“I sleep in it, I’m not taking it apart.” Pao had to grudgingly admit it was not ordinary to have a bed that filled the entire small room of her apartment. The old fashioned bed had intricate cornice panels with little carved birds, which bobbed on wire springs to look like they were flying.

The cornice birds reminded Pao of her mother. Pao had always loved going to the fortunetelling birds on Temple Street with her mother.

“I got this from my parents. I got all of this from my parents. Xiang helped me pick the items for this apartment for the best feng shui.”

“Of course. All cats like to eat fish but do not want to wet their paws. Now since we are not going to be having a nap in your magnificent bed at the moment, can we get moving back to headquarters?”

Pao rolled her eyes at him, grabbed a few more items from her room and then joined him in the lounge.


	14. Soldier (卒)

They were sitting in an uncomfortable small interview room in the basement of the office. Ju had gotten Zu transferred over for the conversation much faster than Pao thought was possible.

Ju had winked at her in the taxi while he was on the phone making the arrangements to get Zu moved. “The grease works to blind those who see.” He had smiled and looked out the car window.

His complex conversation with the person on the phone didn’t always seem to be about police matters. It wandered from garbage pickup contracts to shipping container delivery schedules to the transporting of prisoners from the Met’s holding facilities to Headquarters. And then a comment about someone's sister.

Pao's ears pricked up but Ju just smiled and nodded into the phone at that point. Listening. He toyed with his belt and then gruffly ended the call.

In the car, Pao had also made a phone call. She called in to her Captain with a report, leaving out the small matter of the missing driver or the meeting with her brother the day before. He agreed on her talking to Zu. She would have to do it sooner or later. Ju was the lead but Pao would have to provide a report.

Now seemed like good timing. In the administrative office, she made sure to refuse a note taker without making too big of a deal of it. She thought that might be prudent given that they'd end up talking about Ma and Xiang.

The intake clerk coordinating the prisoner pick up and drop off was a taciturn uniformed woman Pao had not seen before. She worked laboriously on the paper work Ju had offered, adding her chop in red to the long list at the bottom of the paper.

Pao thought she had seen an envelope in amongst the paperwork. The woman had made the envelope disappear somewhere. Ju was apparently working his regular methods to get his work done.

The intake clerk’s colleague, a nervous thin man, had offered them tea a number of time. Hesitantly speaking to Ju as if he would react badly to verbal contact, the officer restated the process for meeting a prisoner in the interview room. Video on at all times. No physical contact. Audio on during interview. All notes left with the office for transcription. No files or papers given to the prisoner. No objects left on the table. No food or drink in the interview room. Prisoner chained to the table with arms and legs in shackles. Call the officer to pause or end the interview. The list went on and on.

Ju was still holding his hat in his hands as they moved to the door of the interview room. As the door was opened by the thin man and Ju moved forward, a low voice said, “Ju, I think the last time you wore that hat you were graduating from police college.”

Pao looked in at Zu from the hallway before sitting on one of the chairs facing the prisoner.She wanted to know what the connection was between Zu and Xiang. 

Her brother shouldn’t really know him based on Zu’s file that she was balancing on her lap in the tiny room. She looked up again at the heavily tattooed man sitting in front of her behind a thin tabletop. Wrists shackled to the legs of the table, bolted to the floor.

He was a low level criminal enforcer bound to a rival gang of her brother’s. They should have had no contact. He didn’t seem to be involved in any area her brother would deign to work on. They didn’t share any similar past history. No shared friends according to the detailed notes in the file.

Zu looked back at the both of them, relaxed and smiling. It looked like he was missing an ear, an injury half hidden under his dyed deep red hair tied back in a long ponytail.

He was smiling. She noticed that his incisors seemed a bit long. She gave her head a little shake. She was starting to have overly dramatic responses to anything having to do with her brother.

The tattoos also gave him a look of a character in a manga or something. Although a handsome man, his features had a feral look of something wild under the surface.

He had dark geometric line tattoos over his eyebrows that Pao couldn't stop looking at. He had a bandanna tied over his forehead. She thought he was probably covering up some other tattoo work.

She looked down at his file and her notebook. Ju tapped her on the thigh below the table. She started the questioning with a soft voice.

"So Zu, you claim you have information about the bombing. Bomb one or bomb two or both? You were in jail when bomb two went off. What can you tell us about the incident at that second location?"

Zu rubbed his big hands over his face, readjusted his bandanna and cleared his throat.

"I didn't know you wanted to actually talk to me about this stuff. What gives Ju? Why did you want to talk to me now?"

Ju leaned forward and said "The cop is asking you some questions. Did you want to refuse to answer them?"

"I see where this is going now. Sorry I missed the signs. Officer Pao, your mouth is so pretty, it hides your teeth." Zu put his elbows on the table and looked more closely at Pao. He smiled again. So much grinning in this room. Pao was getting irritated.

Pao decided she was completely irritated, "Oh shut up with your trite sayings. You and Ju should be lovers. Stupid old men. I'm playing a quin to a cow here."

Zu laughed out loud. "Good, good. Ju you are very overmatched with this one." Zu winked at her. Ju pretended to frown but he didn't say anything.

Pao continued, "You don't seem that disturbed to be in jail. Are you so confident that your information alone will get you out?"

"I thought Ju was getting me out. Tell me brother, aren't you getting me out soon? Last time you said-"

Ju jumped in and interrupted him sternly. "Brother Zu, what's past is past. Let's talk about the bombs first and the Elephant next. Now can you provide Sister Pao with any information about the bombs? The bomber? The purpose of all this?"

Zu sucked his teeth at them and the crossed his hands on the desk. She had a feeling that if the chains had allowed, he would have crossed his arms huffily across his chest. "Did you talk to the Elephant yet?"

Pao sighed. "Yes. What do you have to add to the conversation here and now?"

Zu started to laugh."You still have glass in your hair. You sure you are feeling okay? There may be more bombs. Depends on if the terms are submitted. I think it's drugs. A gang from San Francisco. There's a problem for the big bosses with shipments."

Pao tried not to touch her hair. She asked him, "And why those locations?"

"Targeting a guy. His kid buys manga at that bookstore and his mother takes the bus."

"Seriously Zu?" Ju didn't bother to take a note. "So thin my friend, so thin. Your lies are transparent. No-one cares about someone's kid's comic buying habits. Why didn't they just blow up the guy when he's at the bar or in his car? But more importantly which guy? What drugs, women or weapons? Please share your knowledge and we can talk about your current charges."

Zu tapped his fingers on the table and started to talk with Ju about construction workers being bussed in from the Mainland, shipping containers and the timing of airplane freight schedules.

Pao felt herself zoning out staring at the file with Zu glaring at the photographer, blood streaming down the side of his face, eyes straining open, mouth snarling in the bleak black and white photo stapled inside the file jacket.

The photo was dated last year. She thought about the vast difference between the person sitting calmly in front of her and the demon like aspect to the man in the photograph.

Zu's voice broke through her thoughts.

"I'm a soldier. I don't know the ins and outs of the brokers. I wasn't in the room. I was in the car. The Elephant is my contact. My only contact."

The Elephant. Pao thought about that comment. That was her brother.

 She subtly tapped Ju on the leg and interrupted them both, "Zu, hold up a moment. I want more information about what you do for the Elephant. And what happened to your ear. Tell me about what happened to your ear."

Ju's head snapped up. He looked first at Zu and then he looked back at Pao. He said nothing.

Pao snapped "I'm waiting. Please answer the question about your ear first. What. When and where. Please."

Zu narrowed his eyes, looking at Pao with an appraising look, 

"So you really are the Elephant's sister. Interesting. The fish gets larger when it is lost from the fishing line. I am impressed that you would make that connection so quickly." He tapped one thick forefinger on the table. “Ju’s notes in that file you are holding may not have this story.” And he began to explain what happened the year before.

+++

Ju was thinking. Not entirely ignoring Zu but he had heard this story before. He was thinking about Pao.

Right after they had limped to his shitty room, Ju had combed the glass out of her hair while she laid on the couch. He combed her hair slowly and gently. Her head was lying on his knees. She had said her ears were ringing loudly, she couldn't hear a thing.

Ju had noticed a red line around her neck. When he touched a finger lightly to what was the thread around her neck and he had to recoil quickly. "Pao Lin, that necklace sparked. It burned me. What the hell is that?"

She didn't notice his reaction. Her eyes were closed, she was deafened and she was probably barely feeling the comb move slowly through her shoulder length hair.

Ju had reached into his pocket and found a pen. He had lifted up the thread very gently, patting Pao's neck near the thread but avoiding touching it with his fingertips. Pao didn't open her eyes. She seemed to be almost asleep if not already asleep.

Shit, that brother of hers was troublesome. The amulet on the thread appeared to let him be around Pao but not touch her with his hands or remove the necklace.

Ju continued to comb the glass and blood out of Pao's hair. He hummed a little tune which made her hair rise up a little as if statically charged when he combed it with the carved wooden comb with the big teeth. She would have a better sleep if she was well and healed. The fingers of his other hand slid above her face, above the sparking zone, making circular motions in the air.

The air looked thicker just where his fingertips were moving, like ripples in water or as if it was gelatin. He could see the cuts fading on her pale skin under his motions. His leg had cramped from sitting sideways on the couch but he needed to finish his work before she woke up.

Now that they were at Headquarters, it seemed that she wasn’t wearing the amulet any longer. Ju had already touched her on the back and the arm, her leg. He was enjoying the opportunity.


	15. Edge of the River

“Turn off the video." Zu's voice had dropped low. His hand tapped on the table. One. Two Three. One.Tap. Tap. They had been working for over two hours already. Zu was telling them tales.

Ju smiled, stood up and shook out his pant legs to remove any wrinkles. He said easily, "Let's get Zu transported and we'll reschedule to when you are feeling better Pao." He looked at her, his hands signaling 'stay still'. "I'll go get the officer in charge of that. This conversation is over."

He left the door ajar when he left the room. Pao moved to the console and turned off the audio recording. Blocking the video with her body, standing over Zu to unlock his chains from the table, she bent her head down to him.

"So talk quickly." She breathed rather than spoke into his good ear.

"It was angel’s pawn with left central cannon variation versus thundering defense with left central elephant."

Pao stared at him. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Central cannon versus sandwiched horse defence? Anyway, You'll get your horse back. Maybe, if he doesn't wake up first."

Pao slapped him. She couldn't stop herself.

+

Ju stuck his head in the interview room. “Are you kidding me? What is going on here?” He moved quickly to separate them. “I leave you alone for two minutes and you just can’t get along.”

He was accompanied by the woman from the intake desk. She craned her head around him to stare at Pao and Zu. She said in a querulous voice, “I’ll have to write this up. You know I’ll have to write this up.”

Pao turned to Ju, “Make that go away.” She continued to block the video camera view and continued to work on releasing Zu.

Ju drew the intake officer back out into the hallway, Pao could hear him smoothly speaking with her in a low voice. Encouraging her to look the other way, probably offering more money. Zu looked at her. “Can I stand yet?”

Pao pulled on the chain up and through the table. Sliding around his body, it released his hands and ankles. Zu clapped his hands and asked to stand.

Pao nodded, she set the chain on the seat of the chair she had been sitting on. Ju was now standing in front of the interview room door. He was holding an orange vest for Zu. “Come now my friend, we need to transport you back.” He winked at Pao. “Let’s go Zu. We aren’t really finished here but our time has come to an end. I need you to wait with him in the processing area. I have to just quickly go and speak with a driver.”

While Ju restrained Zu for transport, she skirted them both and collected her files and the chain. As she passed Zu he touched the chain with a hand. “I have some more information for you but I can’t tell you here.” He smiled again widely enough to show his incisors. She repressed a shiver.

Ju steered Zu out the door and back into the brightly lit processing area. The intake officer had a satisfied look on her face and was back behind her counter. She pointed to processing area C and Ju walked with them both in that direction. Pushing Zu down to sit on the bench. Ju chained him back up to the hook in the wall. Hands and ankles.

Pao sat on the bench opposite. Video camera to her back. Ju leaned down and spoke softly into her ear, “I’ll go see about the driver’s information. You can speak a little more freely here. There is no audio only video.” He handed her a notepad and a pen. “Perhaps some notes may be in order?”

Zu smiled again at her then moved his head. He shook his head abruptly and his braided hair came cascading down in a crimson sheet to shield his face. He said in his low voice, “Our shared brother is my master. He told me to get arrested. So I am here. He told me to speak with you, so I have.”

“What control does Xiang have over you? We need more information.”

“I require no such break. I am satisfied with my master. The Elephant has not asked me to share any more information with you. Your driver is well. For now. The Elephant said to ask you about the noodles.”

Pao looked at him. “Noodles? What noodles?” Ju had said that Ma had some noodles the day they met at the café for a meeting about the bomb. Ma had come back from his snack looking spaced out.

Zu just sat and hid behind his hair. Arms crossed as far as the chains would let him. “I don’t know about the noodles. Your driver is an interesting guy. He came to the Elephant himself. He made an appointment.”

Pao was nodding, “Fortunetelling.”

“Fortune telling. At The Elephant’s office. Your driver said he had a problem with his girlfriend. And sleeping.”

“Then what? How did he manage to screw that up?”

“Our brother saw him but your driver didn’t know he was your brother. Our brother was upset and kept your driver. You had an appointment the following day. He felt you were spying on him.”

“Did Ma get an answer to his problems?”

“I doubt it. Our brother was very angry at you. He kept your driver overnight. I think your driver got out himself. No-one at the office would have helped him. He was followed to MK on a minibus earlier today but I’m not sure we continued to watch him. Orders were just to watch him and then it was called off. I thought he was boring. A cop driver? Dull.”

“Noodles eh?” Pao thought she could maybe go back to the café street and look around.

“Our brother was more interested in you than your driver. And officer Ju. He works for our brother now you know. The Elephant owns him. Ju is keeping an eye on you for him. Ask Ju to help you look for your driver.”

Pao thought about that information. Well it wasn't surprising on one level but very surprising on another. “Seriously? Ju?”

Zu looked back at her, “Yes. Ju. This has been going on for a while. Your Ju appears to have a part to play in our brother’s plans.” His eyes glowed just a little. Red behind the red curtain of hair.

Pao suddenly wished she was holed up at home in her safe anonymous apartment. “I have no wish to know about my brother’s specific or explicit plans unless he is blowing something up or kidnapping my driver.”

“Agreed.” Zu’s eyes turned down with the glow dimming. "And Your driver is named Ma?”

Pao nodded. She was holding the notebook but she didn’t think she was going to get much information out of him. Everything was riddles with these guys. She was tired. She wanted to go home.

“He had an appointment with our brother at the office. Ma had said he had trouble with his girlfriend, a girl named Shi. But he also wanted to talk to the Elephant about some problem he was having sleeping.”

“Ma was falling asleep all over the place. To much sleeping.”

“Was he ill? Our brother thought it was a more mystical reason for the sleeping problems. Had you noticed anything else off with your driver?”

Pao thought it was funny that they were trying to calmly solve Ma’s personal problems in this context. A criminal and a detective in a police detachment talking idly about someone’s love life, sounded like a Korean tv drama.

She answered him brusquely, “Aside from the sleeping? Everything was always dusty as if he was parking the car somewhere dirty or on a construction site. His cuffs and boots were always dusty with brown dust.”

“Did you think that was the answer? Would he need to go to a fortune teller for that answer? I don’t think so.” Zu still had his head down. He sounded a little disappointed in her.

“You saying the dust has a supernatural reason for being over everything? Not just daredevil construction and urban dirt. Maybe. Why Ma though? He is so unassuming. What did my brother tell him?”

“Nothing. Our brother told him nothing and took his money. Ma escaped from the closet and you lost him at the bus stop.”

“What was going on with his wife?”

Zu smiled behind his hair, “No wife. Just girlfriend. Her name is Shi, Shi Ming, but she likes to be called just Shi. You don’t know him very well do you? Shi works at the Met headquarters.”

Pao thought about this information. She knew she didn't actually know Ma. She felt that they got along and she enjoyed his company. He wasn’t exactly handsome but he seemed solid and pleasant.

“Do I know this Shi?”

“You sound jealous. She works in communications. Went to Marymount Secondary. You want the rest of her resume?”

“Ma isn't really my type. But why do you know this information about Ma? Is Xiang blackmailing him to get to me? Or maybe for some other cop favour for the triad?”

“Ma means something to our brother. So he means something to me. I know plenty about Ma. Ma and his dreams. Ma and his place in the other world. Our brother isn’t so interested in this world.”

Well that was certainly true. Xiang had little regard for this world. He would play with the housewives who came to him for fortunes and advice. Offering them glimpses of the true future wrapped up in gossip and parlour magic tricks. He had similar disregard for the gangsters he worked with, never for. He would envision the success or failure of plans, look through people’s hearts and thoughts to root out traitors. He was bored by that daily work. He was always looking for the actual magic at the root of the superstition.

Pao had a thought, “Had Xiang talked about Ma before I made my appointment?”

“Not Ma specifically but a guy they had lost track of when he was a teenager. Someone who wasn’t supposed to be here. A horse driver. Who was lost in time. They were looking for him again.”

Pao pursed her lips, that sounded completely idiotic. “That sounds idiotic actually. Is my brother writing a screenplay with this movie plot? And who is ‘they’ that he was working with?”

“A number of colleagues.”

“Triad?”

“Fortuneteller colleagues. From Temple Street. From heaven. You know.”

“Really.” She paused and thought about that for a moment.

“Anything else you want to tell me? I have to wind this up and find Ju so we can return you.” Her legs were aching from sitting on the hard bench.

Zu moved on the bench, lifting his bound hands to move his hair slightly at the side of his head. “The ear I lost a while ago I told you. At Chi Lin. There was a battle there at Diamond Hill. That’s where our Brother met his colleagues.”

“I’ve been to that temple. It’s huge. When was this battle? I didn't hear anything about a fight there. How did Xiang participate? He isn’t a fighter. He’s a scrawny young guy.”

“He met Fox, Snake and found out about the horse driver. He isn’t a fighter you are right.”

“So Fox and Snake are both fortune tellers? Goes along with the name Elephant I guess. What did you mean earlier when you said that Ma would wake up?”

“He is dreaming now days about his own reality. He needs to wake up.”

“Can you tell me about the dust then? He said he was dreaming about the desert or a barren landscape, over and over every night. Are you saying that the dust comes from his dreams?”

“Yes. That’s how it was explained to me.”

“And my brother has been working on this for a while it seems. So involved. I don't remember him being this excited over something before. I need to find Ma and I need to get Ju.”

“And me? What about me in your plans?” Zu looked at her across the processing area. He seemed much closer than the opposite bench.

“I’ll have to think about that. You don’t always answer my questions fully. I need to talk to you more. Stay put. I’ll be back.”

Pao got up stiffly and walked towards the corridor to see if she could find Ju in the building. Zu exhaled softly with a whistle, it sounded like a prayer to Pao’s ears.


	16. Rice Bucket (飯桶)

“Hey, you look like a rice bucket, you Chee Ming?” Ju was looking around the break room at the motley crew in there. No-one was looking at Ju, their eyes were downcast and they started to quietly sidle out the door. Officers never came to the drivers’ break room unless something really bad was happening.

The guy he had spoken to just silently jerked a thumb at the sagging couch against one wall and then backed away. There was a doughy guy in a driver’s uniform having a nap with a handkerchief over his face.

Ju nudged him with a sharp knee. “Hey. Wake up I need something. You Chee-Ming?”

The fat man turned his face away. “What you have work for me? I’m on break. Pick someone else as your driver.”

Ju smiled. “No driving work for you today. Only speaking with me, easy work.” The man on the couch twisted and almost fell off, blowing the handkerchief off and looking at Ju with panicked button eyes in a big round face. His sock feet hit the floor with a thud.

“Oh, apologies sir I didn’t know it was an officer. Lieutenant, my apologies.” Chee-Ming had turned red in the face and was stammering out his apologies to Ju.

The fat driver had stood up and was now hopping on one leg trying to put on his boots. The break room had emptied silently around them. Ju took a chair from the table and sat on it to wait.

“Sir, what can I do for you? Did you book a car through the adjutant?” Chee-ming had wrestled his boots on and was standing forlornly in front of Ju’s chair. His shirt was untucked and he was rumpled from the couch.

Ju waited until Chee-ming has stopped talking long enough to breath. “I want information about Ma. He’s a driver on your shift yes?”

“Sir, he disappeared. I don't know what happened.”

“Did he talk to you before he vanished? Send a text or talk to you?”

“No. Not really. He was bitchy the last time he was on break here. He didn’t fetch the food for us like he always did.”

“Did he always go to get your food? Where did you send him normally?”

“He’d bike over to the OK or the 7-11, he never minded before and we aren't allowed to use the cafeteria during the day.”

“Okay, so he has a bicycle somewhere? Did he use it to get to work?”

“No he took the bus or a taxi to work if he was late. What happened to him? Is he in trouble? What did he do?”

“No matter fatty. Can I get his phone number and address? I also have to talk to his girlfriend. Shi I think her name is? In Communications yes?”

“I have his phone number but I don’t know where his apartment is now. I knew him when he was a kid. After his parents died he moved from their place. You know his girlfriend too? Shi Ming. They were fighting. Ma had asked around the break room for some advice.”

Ju took out a little red notebook and a pencil stub and handed it to Chee-Ming. “Write down his phone number please. And then I’d like to hear about the fighting and the advice.”

Chee-Ming swiped through his contacts on his phone with a shaking finger. He had put the notebook down on the table gently. In careful block printing he wrote down Ma’s cell number with the pencil, licking it to get started.

Ju prompted him, “And the fighting and the advice?”

“Ma couldn’t sleep and felt like his girlfriend was smothering him. Her aunt than she lives with hates him. Thinks he’s a bumpkin. Short, ugly and poor. That was harsh though right? He was born here in HK and he has some university I think. He just isn’t flashy. And his English is bad.”

Chee-Ming handed back the notebook and wiped his hands down his pant legs. He was looking sweaty and pale.

Ju continued, “So the aunt thinks that he isn’t the one for her niece it seems. I don’t want to date him. I just want to know what is going on with his girlfriend. Did he ask you for advice? Did he talk to any of the other drivers?”

Chee-Ming stared at him.

“I’m not going to come to your house to check your water meter. Can you answer my questions?”

“I told him to go to Temple Street. To see the Snake.”

“That old fraud is still telling tales to suckers for coins? Okay. When did you tell Ma to go see him?”

“The last time he was in the break room. I told him to try Temple Street and that the Snake was a good option. Better than some of the ones for tourists. The Snake doesn't steal your money with empty lies. I didn’t set up the appointment, I just recommended he go down there.”

“Have you consulted the Snake yourself? Please tell me the truth.”

Chee-ming sort of choked, “Yes. Yes I have.”

“Can you tell me about what subject?”

Chee-Ming turned bright red and looked down. “About mahjong. Would I win at mahjong.” He whispered.

Ju looked at him a bit sourly. “So did you win? Oh don't tell me, I think I know already. Anything else to add? Do you know where he is now?”

“He had talked about some problems he was having with Shi, his girlfriend. You should talk to her.”

Ju said nothing. Chee-Ming looked up at him. Ju was sucking his teeth, holding his hat in his hands.

“Okay then, thank you for your cooperation. If Ma texts you, shows up in person, calls you or in any way contacts you, can you please let your adjutant know? He will get in touch with me at the PTU.”

“Sure sure.” Chee-Ming was wringing his hands now.

Ju left him wriggling on the line. No-one knew why they wanted Ma. But unfortunately no-one knew where he was at the moment. Ma had escaped from Xiang, lost Pao and now was somewhere in Hong Kong.

Ju’s next stop was to talk to Shi and then go collect Pao and maybe Zu if they still needed him.


	17. Finding the Fortress

Shi took her phone out of her pocket. The hallway was crowded with transit wardens in hi-viz reflective vests. Ju had interrupted her distributing an update on traffic and construction to the afternoon shift. Ju juggled his hat into his other hand.

"See, See." She pointed to the screen, and handed her phone to Ju, "Here's where I dumped him two days ago. He never even responded to me." She looked ready to yell at someone. "Was he already kidnapped then? Was he kidnapped because he was driving Pao? Driving isn't supposed to be dangerous. Is Ma okay? Has he been found yet?"

Ju scrolled through the banal text message history between Ma and Shi. He could see the evidence of romance manhua and soap operas in Shi's life. Ma was a saint to put up with this drama. "Her brother is a gangster you know. They were probably trying to get to her." Shi was looking at him with wide eyes.

The crowd jostled Shi to one side as the traffic wardens dispersed. Ju was tempted to claim that he wasn't aware of that fact but then took pity on the woman. The last text message to Shi from Ma was a couple of days before he went missing. About keys. Maybe the day after the first bomb. The day they had gone for coffee at that place and Ma had come back from waiting outside with an odd look about him. Ju had thought he was drunk or high maybe at the time and had a fleeting memory of being concerned about him driving Pao in that state. Just a little.

Ju weighed Shi's phone in his hand.

"Was Ma a drinker? Did he ever take drugs?"

"No my god, no. Ma had the occasional beer but he didn't even smoke." Shi touched Ju's arm, pleading with big eyes and a concerned look, she theatrically lowered her voice, "Do you think he is missing because I broke up with him? I probably should have called but I was upset-"

Ju interrupted her, placing his large hand on her small one on his arm, "I think that's unrelated actually. I'm sorry that you had trouble in your relationship. Had you spoken to anyone about this before? Gotten any assistance with advice about Ma?"

Shi took a step back, "I'm a very private person. I wouldn't talk about my relationships with anyone.' Ju just nodded and tried not to smile too hard.

"So that's a no then?" He handed back her phone.

She looked at the phone for a minute and then said in a lower tone, "Well I went to a psychic that my Aunt recommended. He was expensive but told me to break up with Ma."

Ju's eyebrow shot up involuntarily but he controlled his voice, "When did that conversation take place?"

"The day I sent the breakup texts." Shi sounded sad.

"And who did you meet with? What was their name?"

Shi shrugged and flipped her hair back, "My Aunt said I shouldn't waste my time with charlatans and got me an appointment with the Elephant. He is very hard to get an appointment with you know. He uses his magic eye to look inside of you. He knows everything that has happened and everything that will happen." Ju blew out a little breath, "Okay."

Shi continued, "The Elephant said that Ma was nervous about the future. He told me to break up with Ma. My Aunt did too."

He looked down at his hands, that tidbit wasn't entirely unexpected. "Thanks for that information. If Ma contacts you in any way please contact me through your admin. Any communications from him please contact me okay?"

Shi nodded as she patted her hair, her eyes starting to shine wetly. Ju figured she would return to her desk and then begin the hysterics. Shi turned and walked back towards her work unit to the arms of friends and ample Kleenex.

Desire was tricky for most people it seemed. Ju chalked up Shi's issues to youth and naivety. Ma he thought just was an idiot and not that social. But why couldn't they find him. Ma just wasn’t clever enough to hide so completely.

He walked back down the hall to meet up with Pao and Zu. He checked his phone then dialed a number. "Yes. It's me Ju. I need a car. Met HQ. For right now." He paused in front of the elevators. "That's fine. I'll drive. I need the bag though." The elevator dinged and the doors opened. "The cloth bag. Filled." Ju got on the empty elevator and pressed the Lobby button. "I'm transporting a prisoner and an escort from Commercial. He'll be restrained but is not a threat."

He listened.

"Sure sure. We'll be stopping by at some point soon. I need a name of a noodle vendor. Probably unlicensed. Near Wood Ta.LK. That éclair place. Argyle and Nathan. Yes. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Call me back when you have something."

The elevator door opened on the lobby and Ju strode out putting his phone back in his pocket, heading for the front doors street level to pick up the car. He made a quick stop at the front desk, showing his PTU ID.

"Can you call down to the processing unit? Ask them to escort Officer Pao and the prisoner Zu for pickup? I'll just go get the vehicle."

The Duty Sergeant on the desk looked at Ju and back at the ID and then smiled, nodding his head. "Okay boss. No problem. No problem." He was reaching for the phone as he spoke. Ju nodded and thanked him, turning away from the desk and heading outside into the oppressive heat.

+++

Ju enjoyed driving this type of car. An SUV suited him he thought. Flat green, tinted windows, bush bumper and a winch. Up a bit higher in traffic, better leg room for Ju. Pao and Zu were in the back.

They had freed Zu from the wrist and ankle chains once they were in the car and behind the tinted windows away from Met HQ. In the foot well of the passenger side, Ju was keeping an eye on a pillowcase that bulged with bundles of cash.

Pao wasn't saying much. Zu was looking out the window with glee. He was still wearing the orange jumpsuit from the processing centre. Ju had an idea about that also. He was just full of ideas today.

They were driving back into the neighbourhood of the cafe to check up on the progress of the search for the noodle cart. Ju was going to leave Zu and Pao in the car for safety. They could work from there. He felt that perhaps they should talk to the other fortuneteller. The Snake. But he would wait until later that day to do so. It was still pretty early.

At the next traffic light he checked the back seat in the rear view mirror. Pao had fallen asleep, curled up a bit in her seat. Her head had drifted onto Zu's thigh. Zu grinned at him in the mirror, his hands gently patting Pao's hair down over her shoulder, threading his fingertips through her hair. Ju shook his head and smiled.

He called back to Zu, “So you can touch her? Did our brother give you something?” Zu held up his wrist, turning it slightly so the cuff of the orange suit rode up showing a thin braided red leather bracelet with temple coins threaded through it.

"Good. Do you have your phone?"

Zu held up his phone.

"Call my office and ask for the address of the pickup. I can't call I'm driving."

Zu nodded. Ju could hear him murmuring in Mandarin in the back seat. Zu called out "That restaurant. I can get changed there."

Ju sighed contentedly, so far so good.

+++

The SUV was parked outside a congee restaurant with newspaper over the windows. Zu had changed his clothes in the kitchen and was sitting at a table at the back picking his teeth.

Pao was awake now and having a tea at one of the tables by the door, her bag on the table beside her, she was working on a laptop. She had her phone plugged in as a wifi hotspot.

The next table over, Ju was on the phone, reading glasses on, he was looking at some notes and talking to someone.

Pao looked back at Zu and asked him what he was waiting for. Zu just tipped his chin up at the TV mounted on the wall above the fish tank and the photos of bubble tea. “I love this song.”

Pao looked at the TV again. “Jacky Cheung? You’ve been in prison for a long time haven’t you.”

He shrugged and ignored her. She turned to Ju; he was still on the phone. She toyed with her teacup. She pushed her chair back and stood up, taking her teapot back to the kitchen for more water. She walked through the door to the kitchen.

“Uncle? Are you here?” Pao called.

A thin South Asian man in dark shorts and a light short sleeved shirt got up from the overturned 10-gallon bucket he was sitting on by the deep sinks, phone in his hand. He was wearing an underarm holster. He brushed his hair down over his bald spot with his free hand and said nervously, “Officer Pao? What do you need?”

“Hot water.” Pao moved over to the hot water boiler with her teapot in hand.

“Sure sure.” He sat back down on the bucket and concentrated on his phone again, ignoring her completely.

“Uncle, where are the people who work in this restaurant?” Pao had filled her teapot. She was watching the crab eye tealeaves she had brought with her swirl in the bottom as the hot water uncurled them as it steeped. The fragrance reached her nose in the curls of steam.

“Eh? Oh we use this as our office, the restaurant isn’t really open for business.” He laughed, “At first we had to turn away customers every day. Congee isn’t that hard. Sometimes I think I could do lunches. When we aren’t working of course.” He smiled at her and then put his phone away.

“Okay Uncle, I’ll go back to the front.”

He nodded at her and then took down a sheaf of papers and a pencil stub. He noted something on the top sheet and then apologizing, turned away to the back door to do check something. He hit the bar to open the door and stepped outside into the heat.

Pao moved back to the restaurant and returned to her table. She slid the teapot closer to her laptop.

Zu was humming along to another video on the TV.

Pao blurted out. “Faye Wong? What channel is this?” She looked at Zu hard, “Laser disc? God, you guys.”

Zu just smiled at her from the back and kept on humming. Ju came over to Pao’s table and put down a newspaper listing. “Sorry to interrupt, have you ever seen this?”

Pao looked at the paper. “This is a listing of rental housing. Why would I be looking at these?”

“Coded messages.”

“Seriously. You joking with me Ju? I’m a little tired today for a joke.”

“Your brother.”

Pao took the paper in hand and squinted at the listings. She put it back down on the table. “Looks like nothing to me. I don't need a ‘1 bedroom high floor bright in daytime in Wan Chai’.”

“It’s a listing of dates and times.”

“I don’t see it.“ Pao slid the paper back to him irritatedly. “And you know what? Ju, stop playing me. I thought we were looking for Ma. And I know that my brother is paying for you guys to be here. I heard he’s paying you to look after me.”

Ju had the wits to look offended. “No no no. We know him of course but we aren’t working for him.”

Zu laughed. “I am. I am pledged to our brother. What’s the problem? I am looking for the horse as directed. Though right now this moment I am watching television.”

Pao stared at her laptop. Ju was talking in soothing tones about misunderstandings and mix-ups and crossed paths.

“It’s a fateful coincidence Pao. It takes hundreds of reincarnations to ride in the same boat. We are here now. Together. Working.” He trailed off after looking at her face.

Zu spoke up from the back of the room, “I loved that movie. Behind the Yellow Line. The past playing a role in the future.”

Pao just laughed at that, shaking her head. “Was I even born when that movie came out? You are too much Zu.”

She rounded on Ju, “Can we just go find Ma please? Or solve something? Or beat someone up now?”

Ju held his hands up in surrender, “I’m just waiting for the report from the neighbourhood about the noodle vendor.” He paused, “And I’m waiting to hear from your brother.”

“I’ll just call him then.” Pao picked up her phone.

Ju said gently, moving in close and taking the phone from her hand, “You know it doesn't work that way.” He put the phone back on the table.

There was a knock from the door to the kitchen. Zu was at the door faster than Pao could follow. He held himself in front of the door when it opened. Then he relaxed.

A youngish man came into the restaurant from the kitchen, he had a shock of white hair for bangs. He looked like every other mid-twenties HKer, backpack, jeans, hoodie. But he turned to Pao and smiled and it was electrical. His gold eyes looked into her soul.

“Greetings fellows, I am Se. You needed me for something?” His eyes flicked away from her. Pao looked down again at her laptop. “You are a friend of my brother’s I think.”

“Friend is stretching the truth a little bit. More of an acquaintance. Or perhaps a colleague. He is working on something I also am working on.” Se took a seat at her table. “Ju, any chance of tea?” He put his bag on the floor, took out cigarettes and pulled over a tin ashtray closer to him.

Pao took out her phone and decided. She hesitated only for a moment and then punched the numbers into her phone. She sent the text and then looked back up at the three men.

“Where is Ma? That is what I want to know first. And then I want to know why you three weirdos want him too.”

Se coughed tactfully into his hand, “Did you really just send your brother a text? Oh dear.”

Ju sighed theatrically and resumed his seat at a table, “Pao, I thought we discussed this. He’s going to be mad.”

Zu didn’t take his eyes off the TV screen but said in a low voice, “I think your noodle vendor is found.” He held up Ju’s buzzing cell phone.

Pao sniffed and said, “Anyone going to tell me what’s actually going on? What does my brother have to do with any of this?”

Zu tore his eyes away from the TV finally, “Has our Brother ever gotten the numbers right in the lottery?”

Pao thought about it, “I guess some free tickets but no, I don’t think that he ever saw the numbers. I didn’t think he could do that.”

“His vision is cloudy. Do you know who he really is?” Zu leaned forward a bit and looked her. She noticed now that his irises looked red. A deep dark red that matched his hair. “Do you know who any of us are?”

Ju looked irritated, “Give me the phone. And don’t start that now.”

Zu gave him the phone but answered, “The beginning of wisdom is the calling of things by their right names.”

Ju turned his back on Zu to make a call about the noodles she guessed.

“What does this stuff have to do with anything?” Pao was feeling left out of the conversation in a way she couldn’t put her finger on. “You are a murderer, he is a cop and that one is a fortuneteller from Temple Street.”

Se spoke up, “Well, we are those things now.” He paused and looked down at his cigarette.

Zu stood up, “He’s almost here.”

Ju turned back and held the phone away from his face, “What do you want to do then?”

“Let’s meet him then. We haven’t found the horse yet. He might have information for us. And it will be nice for Pao to see her brother again so soon.” Se smiled to himself.

Pao shook her head, “What were you yammering on about being reincarnated from something else? What are you talking about?”

Se held her eyes with his golden ones and said softly, “Heaven. We have been looking for Ma for some time now. Since the chaos in heaven when we lost him the first time.”

Pao looked blankly at Se. Just then the back door banged open and there was a crash from the kitchen. The skinny uncle from the backroom backed into the restaurant with his hands up.

As they all rose to their feet, stepping into the restaurant with a pissed look on his face was Xiang. “This better be good Pao, I do not normally respond to text messages. Especially from family.”


	18. Cannons in front of horses

Pao turned to face her brother, but hadn’t noticed that her fists were tightly clenched until this moment. “Where is Ma?” She had responded more harshly than she had meant to.

“Che, you are always so dramatic.” He pulled out a chair and sat in it. The men behind her stepped back or stilled. That uncle in the kitchen didn't appear in the doorway, she hoped her brother hadn’t done anything fatal back there.

Zu spoke face down to the floor. “I am here Master. He freed me so I am back.” He was bowing low, braid slipping over his shoulder.

Xiang didn’t respond with words, he silently gestured to the left. Zu moved in behind her. She could feel the hair on the back of her neck prickle.

The Elephant looked at him crossly, "If you are all in here," he waved his hand at them,  "And not out there," he pointed at the paper-covered door to the street, "Why is Ma not here now?" He pointed at the floor angrily.

Ju bent his head but he had had stayed slouched in his chair. He spoke calmly, "Greetings also to you Brother. We were just discussing with your sister how patience and a lantern might get you a roasted ox."

Pao shifted from foot to foot. Next to her, Zu sniffed the air and stepped forward slightly. Pao could smell it as well, the slight electric odor of ozone. She tasted a hint of copper on her tongue.

The restaurant felt very cold. She dared a quick glance at her brother.

Her brother’s left hand was in front of his spirit eye, hair starting to stand up from the electrical sparks emanating from behind his hand.

"Look to the dog. Look at Zu." the Snake whispered to her.

She turned her gaze to the redheaded man to her left. She saw only a blur as Zu moved and then with a quiet rustle, crouched down suddenly in front of her brother, his hair lifting from behind off his back. His thick braid rising like a rope around his head. "I can find him. I can find him for you."

Pao still didn't fully understand what was going on but she wanted an answer. "Xiang." She snapped. "Why are you always so angry at everyone?"

She held up her hands to him, "You kidnapped him. Why would he want to stay with you? Why do you want him anyways. He is just my driver. I don't even know what any of you are doing here. What am I doing here?" 

Xiang lowered his hand from his eye. His electrical field seemed to dissipate with a slight hiss. He moved to put his hand on Zhang’s smooth hair but turned back towards her. "You know nothing even after all this time."

“So tell me something. Enough with the tricks.”

Ju was smirking she was sure of it. Se the snake was appalled. His mouth making a small ‘o’ but he stayed silent.

Xiang stood up, pushing his chair across the linoleum with a screech. “Enough.”

He had said it in a normal tone. Perhaps forceful but not yelling. His normal entitled bossiness maybe. Pao hadn’t heard any malice in his voice. She was surprised at the reaction from the three stooges.

The men instantly fell flat on the floor. Flat, faces down and motionless, like inner palace staff in costume dramas when the Emperor comes around the corner unexpectedly.

Pao was surprised to see that even supercilious Ju was off his chair. Face flat to the floor. Hands clasped at his forehead. Motionless.

Xiang shook out his pant legs and took a step forward. He tersely said, “Join me outside.”

“Will you let them up?” She was looking at the men on the floor.

“No. Forget them for a moment and come outside. I need you.” Xiang moved to the paper covered front door. He unlocked it and shoved it open with a few sparks tracing the outside of her vision.

Pao followed him outside the restaurant. The hot air hit her like a blanket. She pushed closed the restaurant door behind her.

Her brother offered her a rickety folding chair on the sidewalk by the front door. She waited until the metal chair was set down before touching it. The chair frame was hot. She gingerly sat on it next to a large tin can full of sand bristling with burned incense stubs.

Xiang leaned against the glass, his head framed by the large neon congee bowl sign in the window. He looked down at her.

He said, “I’m working today. Those guys were supposed to be finishing up here. What are they doing then?”

Pao looked at him more closely. She wanted to ask him why he looked so tired but instead, as always when talking with her brother about anything, she shrugged.

“I thought you would know. I’m just trying to keep up with those guys.” She considered saying more but changed the subject instead. “Why did you kidnap my driver and where is he now?”

Xiang sort of glared at her and then stared out at the traffic in the road. “I never kidnapped him. He came to me as a client. I have no idea how he ended up at my office but then there he was. I thought you had sent him to spy on me.”

Pao clasped her hands between her knees, trying not move too much on the chair. “I would never do that. When have I ever broken your rules? I never told him about you. I came to see you myself that time to talk about the bombs.”

“Ah yes.” He arched an eyebrow into his bangs, “That bomb, you found anything yet?” Xiang smiled in a way she hadn’t seen for a while.

“Don’t be creepy. I’m not talking to you about that.”

“Creepy?” He laughed, “Ju says you aren’t making any progress.”

“Oh he does? Well those old guys in there probably know something. I don’t trust Ju and that red haired Zu guy of yours was the only suspect until yesterday.” She frowned. “Then I met Zu and he’s not the bomber. He can’t be.”

Xiang looked directly at her. She studiously avoided eye contact. She figured she’d get burned if he looked at her with any intensity today.

“You need to find your bomber? You are correct Pao. You already know.”

“Whatever brother.” She risked a glance at him. He had sunglasses in his hands and his eyes were closed now. He didn’t look anymore relaxed but the static electricity she had felt earlier from him seemed to have dissipated.

“So. Ma? You don’t have him? If you don’t can you tell me where he is?”

“Ju said the fox had him. He was going to send the dog after her but then you asked me to come here. Don’t you want to know why I want Ma? He didn’t open his eyes.

She steeled herself. “Yes. Of course I do.” A thought flickered through her mind. That idiot Ju. Of course he wasn’t telling her the whole story.

Xiang put his sunglasses on and then pulled out something from his pants pocket. A red thread with something tied onto it. “Put this on first.” He held his arm out without turning his head to her.

Pao reached out and took the string. Her chair creaked as she shifted back, the back of the chair hot against her back.. She inspected the bracelet on her palm. A tiny glass panda was tied on it.

Xiang teased her, sounding more like her little brother, “I can feel you shaking your head from over here. That panda is cool. It glows in the dark you know. Just put it on.”

“Okay. Okay.” Pao slipped it over her hand and tightened it on her wrist. “What is with you and all these charms. What’s this one for?”

Xiang opened his eyes. Pao could see his eye through the dark glasses.

Xiang said, “Ju. Ju is starting to get on my nerves. He lies too much.” Xiang’s eye was bright. Like a spark.

“So I found that now Ma is necessary. That once I met him I realized that he is instrumental to me. He needs to return to me so I can end my task in a timely way. Ju has the snake and the dog to help him find the fox for me. Ma is certainly with the fox at this point. But Ju can’t deal with her without assistance.”

“This fox is the noodle granny?”

“She is clever. But Se has had a much longer relationship with her than I do. Ju is the one organizing but he can’t fix this himself.”

“Does Ju know where Ma is?”

“We do.” Her brother answered. “We do know. Let’s go back in.”

“Are they still on the floor?” Pao hated when people worshipped her brother. “I think I have to go back to work but I want to help if I can.” She stood up as he held the door open for her.

They walked back into a conversation in the dim restaurant.

“- should be easy enough to exchange one for the other.” Ju was speaking to Zu, his back to the door. “That’s what brother wanted us to do with her don’t you remember?”

Se hissed a warning at Ju when Pao and Xiang came through the door. Ju stopped talking at Se’s interruption and turned towards them. Always smooth, Ju addressed Xiang without missing a beat, “Apologies for not remaining in our obesiances brother. The floor is not so comfortable in our advanced age.”

Zu was still on the floor but kneeling. He was smiling widely down at the floor. His very pointy teeth were in evidence. He bowed low again at Xiang.

Se had been sitting at the table brushing his teeth and hurriedly spat into a plastic bowl in front of him. He quickly tossed the toothbrush down into the bowl.

Turning towards Xiang, all three of the stooges bowed their heads and said in unison, “Brother. We are at your command and prepared to serve as always.”

Ju was sitting near where Pao had left her laptop. He had drawn his hands away from Pao’s computer slowly and then smiled at her. Caught. She walked over to the table and moved her stuff.

Pao said to Ju’s general direction, “No snappy saying for rummaging around in my stuff again Ju?” Ju mulled it over, “Best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago?” He laughed at his own joke.

Xiang came up behind him and cuffed him on the back of his head. “Idiot. Be quiet.” Ju ducked and then quickly attempted to smooth his hair, “Sorry brother. I forgot my place.”

Xiang waved them all over to the table she was sitting at. Moving the hot sauces and the chopstick jar over to the side he produced a writing paper tablet from somewhere. He held out a hand imperiously.

Pao sighed and handed him her pen.

“Let’s go over what we need everyone to do here.” Xiang was looking at Se pointedly. Se hurriedly shoved the toothbrush and everything else under the table with a clatter. He wiped his face with his sleeve and scuttled over, lowering his head.

“Sister Pao will need to go back to work.” Ju said with his head still bowed. “She has been asked to provide her report. It will cause a problem if she doesn’t.”

“Whatever. Pao, Ju will be in touch with you. Forget these other jerks. I’ll give them something to do. You’ll have Ma back soon enough.” Xiang spoke softly but the three stooges immediately snapped to attention.

Pao started to pack up her laptop and notes, glaring at Ju. She found that she was still was uncomfortable around her brother. That fact alone made her even more irrationally angry at Ju in this situation. He was always pawing through her belongings at every opportunity. She had a password on her computer but she didn’t think that was stopping him. He still seemed to access everything. She didn’t want her brother to have anything to do with him but yet she couldn’t seem to get rid of him.

Xiang began to draw a design or a flow chart or something on the paper. Ripping off additional sheets and fitting them together on the tabletop. Pao couldn’t quite make out what it was. Small circles. Connected by short lines. The characters were too small for her to see how he was labeling the circles from where she was sitting.

He would write a page, show it to Zu. Zu would nod and smile. And then it was shown to Se. Se sat motionless and unblinking.

Then Xiang would place it on the table. Ju was craning his neck to see the map or whatever it was behind the three of them.

Pao thought she saw a spark once or twice between the pen and the paper as Xiang completed the labels on the circles. Or maybe was it numbers that he was writing. She couldn’t quite see.

She heard Xiang say, “She has to have one of you in position for that to work.” Then Xiang glared at the two men hard and tapped the paper with his finger. “This is the approach. Be mindful of the moves we are allowed.”

Then he was finished with the discussion. He abruptly swept all the papers up and handed the sheaf to Ju.

Xiang dismissed Zu with a curt sentence or two she couldn’t hear. The red haired man loped off out through the kitchen door without a backwards glance after his obeisance and bow to her brother.

Se followed him out with a low bow to her brother, and then waved goodbye to her with his phone in hand.

Xiang gave Pao her pen back and dismissed her as well. Pao held the warm ballpoint in her fingertips, blowing on it. Her brother was hot today.

Ju remained seated but said, “Please sister Pao. You should go back to HQ and complete your overdue report for the Superintendent. We will meet you once we have returned Ma. No?”

Pao caught sight of the little glass panda charm at her wrist glowing ever so slightly as she waved her pen in the air. A thin green colour was beginning to shine. She quickly looked over at her brother. He sniggered. She stared back at Ju, her eyes narrowing.

Ju coughed slightly and tried again, “Perhaps we will try to stay out of your way for the moment so you can complete your work obligations? We would hate to jeopardize your work.” He smiled at her. He was certainly shameless. “Would you like me to drive you back to HQ? I don’t mind.”

The panda charm remained solidly glowing green as she frowned down at her hand. Pao turned away to pick up her laptop bag and ignore the both of them.

She turned her back and replied, “Please don’t worry. I’ll take a taxi. You have other things to do I’m sure.” Pao shifted her bag on her shoulder and left through the front door of the restaurant, once again back out into the heat.

++++

 

 

 


	19. Symmetric Cannon

The lights on her floor had already been shut off hours ago. She had called down to the front desk twice to get them turned back on in her area but the calls had no result. She was the only one still working, colleagues and even the cleaners long gone.

Pao didn’t care at this point. She had noticed something back at the restaurant and wanted to confirm if she was correct.

Leaving the three stooges and her brother to hex someone at a car park or something while they continued to look for the noodle auntie, Pao had gone back to the office.

Her Superintendent hadn’t been too pleased with how long she had gone without checking in. Eventually after the haranguing had wound down, Pao had wheedled her Superintendent into approving her expedited file requests if she provided a unit briefing. She wasn’t sure how that would work out seeing as she didn’t intend on writing anything.

After a flurry of calls and emails with the records office, and also calling in a small favour with a colleague to ransack Ju’s desk over in the PTU, Pao had created a small fort of blue jacketed files and binders on and around her desk.

Now, in the darkness she fussed in a desk drawer, looking in her purse with one hand for a handkerchief. She spread the hankie out on her desktop and dropped her vending machine bean bun on it. Pao pushed some of the files out of the small circle of light on her desk from her desk lamp and pulled a different stack towards her.

She had come to the realization that Ju was more involved in these bombings than just as an investigator. Evidence was missing or never collected. Something was wrong with the paperwork. Not just laziness on his part.

Pao chewed on the end of her pen. She ran her finger down one of the report pages. A checklist. Ju. Ju. Ju. She turned back to her laptop and looked at her notes.

Ju was the key. Was that why her brother was tying the three stooges to her so tightly and taking her driver? Ju appeared to have had the opportunity to have made, transported, placed and then detonated both bombs but any motive was still unclear to her. She just couldn’t see how this all fit together. Her brother. Ma. She had no clue.

She scrolled up and down in her spreadsheet. The characters blurred together in the dim light. What had he been thinking. Just why would Ju undertake a bombing plot. She wondered if it was connected to that wretched room he was staying in these days.

The three stooges. Had that even happened? She couldn’t imagine that splendidly officious yet lazy Ju would be so friendly with that Temple Street fortuneteller Se or the wild guy he broke out of jail with a giant sack of cash. They seemed so familiar and at ease with each other.

She flicked her eyes across the aisle to a temple postcard of the Three Stars of Heaven a colleague had pinned up in his cubicle. Now that was farfetched even for the delusion she found herself in presently. Pao snorted. There was just no way Ju would ever be caught dead in an old man beard.

She hoisted another stack of binders onto her desk and restarted her review, taking up her bean bun again. Only a few more boxes to review. Ju’s professionalism wasn’t looking too good at this point.

She could hear his voice in her head, “A lazy donkey working the grindstone always makes sure to take the time to take a shit.” She waggled her hands and tried again, muttering to herself in a low voice, “A lazy servant takes eight steps to save one.” She giggled to herself.

Someone cleared their throat behind her. “Sorry to interrupt ma’am.”

She started at the voice and turned awkwardly away from the files. Squinting at the uniform standing sheepishly in the gloom.

The uniform apologized again and held out an envelope in both hands to Pao. “Sorry to interrupt Detective Pao, but this was left for you at the front desk.”

Pao took the interoffice envelope and thanked the woman. The uniform fled back to the elevator in the dark. “Nightshift eh? Thanks.” Pao called to her retreating back.

She looked at the envelope. It contained a hard round lump she could feel through the paper. It wasn’t heavy. The writing on the envelope was in blue ink. It was from Ju.

The envelope smelled faintly of incense but that might just be her imagination. She stared fixedly at the front of the envelope and then at her stacks of files. She tossed the envelope down onto her desk. He would have to wait. If he wanted her now he could just text her.

She laughed again. Or maybe he could just fly up here to the 24th floor and get her. She put her little warrior statue on the envelope to remind her to deal with it later.

She returned to the bombing investigation details, then she stopped flipping through the papers. She dusted off some crumbs and flattened out the documents in the binder.

Here. Ju made references to that golden-eyed man being present. Se. Why was Se there at the transit station after the bombing. As a witness no less. She tagged the report page with a sticky note.

She put the file down and tracked down the page with a finger. There Ju. And on that page. Ju. She looked for the file from the first incident. Ju.

Ju’s name and rank were written in surprisingly sloppy characters in blue ballpoint pen. She flipped the page. Ju. Blue pen. Next binder. Ju. Blue pen. File. Ju. Blue pen. It was starting to look like he had created all these documents at once. But the result of the forgery was pointing directly at him as a suspect.

She though about those threads connecting the Ju she knew before and what she knew about him now. The weak morning sunlight was starting to leak into the office. She better hurry up if she was going to figure out what to do about Ju and find Ma.

++++

Ma was sitting near the window in Auntie Jui’s apartment. He was freezing but he hadn’t been brave enough to ask her to open a window to let some of the muggy outdoor heat into the room.

Auntie Juiwei’s teeth had looked blacker today than he remembered when she had squinted up at him and let him in the door with a smile. She had a woolen beanie today instead of the fabric head wrap he had seen her in before. And a pair of pink shiny sunglasses perched on top of the hat.

No snacks today. She had only offered him a cup of overly sweet coffee. She had set up a little metal filter that sat on top of his cup and then fussed with getting the coffee and water into the filter and the condensed milk in the cup. He had politely declined. She pressed him earnestly until he accepted the drink.

He had nervously peeked under the filter as the coffee dripped down until she had smacked his knuckles sharply with a worn dark wood fan. “Ma. You have to wait sometimes for things to finish themselves.”

That cloyingly sweet coffee hadn’t warmed him up. She had taken his empty cup and disappeared somewhere into the apartment. This visit he noticed a musky tang in the air as if she had an elderly pet somewhere in one of the darkened rooms.

She reappeared silently. His phone had buzzed angrily while she was out of the room but he didn’t check it. He had been concentrating on the gritty sugar aftertaste of the coffee and that dark wooden chess piece she had taken from him and placed on the table in front of him.

Auntie had reappeared with what looked like an old brown plate. “Lucky you Ma. Look I found it again. I thought I had lost it.” She laughed that little barking sound. She sat across from him on a hard looking bench seat and held it out to him. He saw it wasn’t a plate at all when he took it from her hands gently.

“It’s a mirror Ma. Do you recognize it?” She smiled again.

“No.” He was confused. Where would he have seen this dirty thing before. “It doesn’t seem to reflect anything.” He turned it around in his hands. There was something that looked like a shiny grease spot in the centre. He rubbed at it with his fingertips.

The dirt shifted across the centre of the plate. He first caught a glimpse of bright green, blue and red painted wooden beams and then the view shifted down to show what he thought were horses’ tails. He almost dropped the plate. It was as if he was looking though a prism or something. The image was hard to identify and wasn’t a straight reflection at all.

He flicked his eyes over at the Auntie and then back to the plate. He had heard the horses hooves when his fingers pressed on the metal. The metal wasn’t warm or cold to the touch. But he could see the same light as the sun in his dreams of the desert. She must be a witch.

He looked at the mirror again warily. The view had shifted downwards. He saw a dusty leather boot with a pointed toe in the shiny strip left by his fingertips on the plate. His own foot twitched. The boot on a highly polished floor in the image twitched.

Auntie laughed when he dropped the mirror. “You are so funny Ma, you know you need to remember it. You can feel it. You can’t really be in two places at once you know.” She leaned in a bit farther. “I think you know it.” She pointed down at the metal mirror on the carpet and motioned for him to pick it up again.

He did but held it loosely in his hands this time and looked at her instead. She cocked her head at him and he was again reminded of an animal looking back at him with her dark shiny eyes and brown wrinkled face. He dropped his eyes back down to the mirror.

He dusted off more of the middle part with his fingertips. The dust spiralled up and dissipated into the air. He could now see the intricately painted beams were what looked like the ceiling of something old, like a temple.

But then he noticed that he could see himself reflected in the mirror but he wasn’t in Auntie Jui’s apartment. He was standing in the room, that old painted room. It was his own shocked face he could see but in the mirror he had long braided hair and a dirty fur hat.

He didn’t drop the mirror this time. It felt ungainly and heavier now. He seemed to be gripping it just as tightly in the reflection.

Ma had an odd idea. He leaned back slightly and angled the mirror sideways towards where Auntie Juiwei was sitting in the apartment. He looked into the mirror and saw only an open door in the painted wooden room. Then his own sheepskin coat wearing arm, his breath steaming off to the side and a dark shape.

He turned the mirror a bit more. The dark shape seemed to coalesce into a feminine form being backlit by the open door. The figure happened to cast a shadow that didn’t quite fit. He squinted at the mirror, leaned in closer, and glimpsed a foxy shaped shadow on the floor.

Auntie had noticed his furtive shuffling. The mirror shifted up and both figures seemed to smile at him in tandem. He had a better view of the reflection Auntie Juiwei now. A slender woman in a long grey padded coat, with complicated long braids and hair ornaments. She was veiled, the fabric covering her face below her eyes. Bright black eyes stared back at him. He thought she was smiling anyway.

“Ma?” He heard both Aunties say. Then the questions diverged.

Mirror Auntie said, “But how will you get them back to the stables Ma? He set them loose. Not all of the horses have returned.”

Apartment Auntie said, “Now do you understand you are needed there? Those three are looking for you to return you but isn’t it better to go back to heaven of your own free will?”

Mirror Auntie said, “You will need to find the rest of them and return them quickly or the Chancellor of the Imperial Household will send someone after you.”

Ma felt like he was trying to watch two different movies at the same time. It dawned on him that what he was looking at in the reflection was an ornately decorated stable.

Apartment Auntie was silent. Mirror Auntie said, “I think you can do it.”

He heard soft horse noises in the background and then felt a strong nudge on his arm. The mirror in his hands shifted, he could see behind him in the reflection. A horse had stuck its head out from the stall and shoved his shoulder. Then his fingertips lost contact with the mirror when he was knocked.

The plate sparked in the reflection, but just a snapping sound on the apartment side. The charge forcing his hands off the rim. The mirror fell into his lap just a dark stained plate once more.

Before he had lost the connection with the stables he saw an image of his own tanned face peering back at him with a familiar worried expression.

Auntie Juiwei appeared at his side with a cloth in her hands and gently took the plate from his lap. He noticed that she didn’t touch it with her bare hands, using the cloth to hold it.

She put the plate somewhere and then sat back down next to him on the bench. Her short legs swinging above the floor, he had barely registered her tiny feet in little brocade shoes. So she was a fox. He supposed it made sense in some ways.

He felt a little ill, almost motion sick, from trying to overlay the apartment with the stable and the reflections of himself and Auntie,

He looked down at his hands. His hands were now covered in a patina of brown dust, thickly laid down under his nails and ingrained in his knuckles. His lap had a circle of dust radiating outwards like a meteor impact from where the plate had landed.

He fruitlessly tried to brush himself off, heedless of the mess drifting to the apartment carpet. Auntie handed him a damp cloth she pulled from somewhere and pointedly looked at his hands.

His fingertips still tingled from losing contact with the plate. “Auntie, why do you connect to heaven with electricity?” Ma asked in a slightly strangled voice. He coughed feeling like something was stuck in his throat. He spit into the cloth. Brown dirt.

Auntie Juiwei slapped his arm. “You are the one connecting to the heavens. Without a phone card, you are making a collect call.” She laughed at that.

“But you are the one who told me to run.” Ma blurted that out without thinking.

Auntie tipped her head on the side again, that little movement that made her look even more foxy. “Ah ha, excellent. You remember me again. I knew the coffee would help you remember.”


	20. Red Palace

Ma was sitting on the stairs in Auntie Jui's building a couple floors below her apartment looking at his phone in its ziploc bag. He had a long list of missed calls. And unread texts. It was a bit cooler in the stairwell with the breeze from the open windows than it was outside, but not as frigid as Auntie's apartment.

Ma was having a cigarette as he sat on the stairs. He didn't normally smoke. He certainly never smoked at work. Early on Pao had mentioned how much she appreciated that fact that he didn't smell of stale cigarettes like some of her other drivers.

Beautiful Shi had made it clear early on that smoking was a complete and absolute no.

The other drivers in the break room had teased him about his lack of vices as he didn’t smoke, drink or gamble with them. But today he had felt compelled to buy a few loose cigarettes from a kid on the way over here for the change in his pockets.

He had realized that he had no safe place to go after he left Auntie’s apartment so he had simply sat down on the stairs. He was feeling a bit shaky from the whole mirror vision earlier. The sweet coffee had made him feel a bit drunk but he felt tired. He scratched the bruise on his bare ankle above his shoe from visiting that snake fortuneteller a day or two ago.

Odd experiences were rapidly becoming so much old rope to him now.  He shook his head and watched the dust motes float up from his hair in the stairwell along with the smoke. Dust. Heaven. Foxes.

Ma held his cigarette in his fingertips and blew a smoke ring at the ceiling and looked again at his phone. Pao had left him the majority of the messages, but there were at least five from Shi. He thought about that for a bit and then flicked through the messages to open the last one on the list from his girlfriend. Ex girlfriend.

His phone shot down to the end of the text. Unsurprisingly she had sent him her regular wall of text missive sprinkled liberally with exclamation marks and emojis. The short version of her text was: PTU Ju was looking for him. Detective Pao was looking for him. They were still broken up. He had broken her heart. Broken heart emoji. Her aunt had told her to beware that Ma would break her heart but she had ignore the advice out of love. Broken heart. Sad cat face.

He deleted Shi's text.

Next up. Pao's terse texts asking him where he was. Was he okay. Short bursts of inquiry. Was her brother there. To call her. To go to the office and meet her there. He was to go home now and call her from there. Was he okay now. Where was he now. His finger hovered briefly over the reply button.

Cigarette in the corner of his mouth, he ran the fingers of one hand down and over a burnt wooden match on the stair tread. Ma traced the match through a small pile of dust that had accumulated on the stair tread. He made a spiral and then rubbed it out. He smoked. He traced triangles and erased them idly.

He hadn't sent any reply to Pao. He held his phone in his other hand, holding the reply button through the dirty ziploc.

He heard some commotion below him at the foot of the stairs. Some door banging and some determined footsteps climbing the stairs steadily towards him. He got to his feet, sheepishly stubbed out his cigarette, intending to start down the stairs to avoid any notice.

Head down, he turned the corner at the floor below and ran smack into the fortuneteller he had visited from Temple Street.

"Oh ho. It is you Ma." The fortuneteller took a step backwards and smiled up at him. "I was looking for you. It's me. Se. Remember?"

Ma stood very still on the stairs looking, he imagined, rather like a mouse before a snake. Se held out a hand to Ma in a friendly gesture. Ma hesitated.

"Let's go back up and see Auntie. You were waiting for me weren't you?" He smiled broadly at Ma, who stood stupidly transfixed half stepping down the stairs.

"You were expecting me?" Ma stuttered. "I know you from Temple Street."

"Yes." Se held the word a little long and blinked his golden eyes at Ma. "And now here we are. Shall we?"

Ma could see the wrist tattoo hidden in Se's track suit jacket sleeve. He thought he saw the tattooed snake move. He shuddered and turned to face the floor above. "I guess so."

"You aren't excited about what you have seen? That you can return?" Se had a hand behind Ma’s back, not quite touching him but propelling Ma back up the stairs to Auntie Juiwei's apartment floor.

Ma frowned. "You are telling me that I should be going to that place? That place I saw in the mirror?" They had reached Auntie's floor. "It feels cold there."

Se laughed. "You certainly are a man of few words. Auntie and I just need to talk to you for a bit. She asked me to catch up to you." Se knocked on Auntie Juiwei's apartment door softly, calling out "Auntie. It's us. I brought him back."

Ma focused on the tattered door gods posters on either side of the door. He didn't want to look at Se.

Se nodded at the posters. "The Jade Emperor had them saving the peach trees. Auntie keeps them around to remind her of the fun. Ah well. You don't remember them it seems." He knocked again on the door, a little more loudly this time.

Ma wondered if he would also run into that crazy Elephant, Pao's brother, in the Foxy Auntie's apartment as well. He should have sent Pao that text. Maybe she would have helped him. Maybe she could help him get back to work. Although he was probably already fired at this point.

Se jiggled the doorknob. "Man she is picky." He rapped again on the door three times with a little double knock at the end. This time the door opened.

Ma was surprised to see that Auntie had on a veil, made of dark blue cloth, almost a mask. Se clucked at her, "You left us in the hallway for that? For shame Auntie. You are among friends. Enough with the masks. You are fooling no-one."

Se pointed at Ma, while looking back at her, “Also, you told me he saw you already. Both here and there. What’s the fuss?” Ma noticed that Se held the last word too long again in a lisp. Snake. Yes of course.

Auntie laughed with her little bark and opened the door wider to let them in. The musky animal smell was even stronger now. She was carrying an old army green desk fan with the cord trailing behind her as she led them back to the sitting room.

Ma ran his hands over his hair. He felt anxious to be back in the apartment again. “Auntie are you too hot?” Ma hoped not. The apartment felt oppressive this visit in addition to being frigid. “The apartment feels quite cool to me.”

She sat down on the hard bench and fussed with her veil. She motioned him to sit down on her right. Se carefully sat on her left and began uncoiling an ancient extension cord from near his feet.

Auntie plugged in the fan, and it whirred away on the floor facing them. Se plugged in a portable radio with two cassette tape slots and turned up the volume. No music came out. Just static. Auntie was now plugging in an older model microwave. She spun the dial to turn it on. It hummed.

Ma was more bewildered than normal.

Se explained to Ma, “It’s the background noise. Before, we needed hordes of monks and nuns chanting, bells or what have you because the world was so quiet.”

Se said excitedly, “But now the city is so fantastically noisy that this becomes so easy. So all we need is the smoke to go with it.”

Se pointed at Ma’s pants pocket. “You had called me to you. It’s how I knew you were there.”

Ma looked in his pants pocket and pulled out his last two cigarettes.

“See you knew even without knowing.” Se leaned over and offered Ma a light. He held a curled and gnarled twig in his hands from somewhere, the end a glowing ember. Ma inhaled to light his smoke.

“Let us get this underway now children.” Auntie Jiuwei had a small thin cigar in one delicate paw. “Se, a light for me also?”

Ma was having a hard time hearing anything in the apartment. The windows were now open and with the running appliances and the outdoor noises the sitting room was filled with sound. Perhaps cicadas buzzing. Or maybe airplanes overhead. With traffic noise layered on the top of it all.

Se had stuck a hand in his tracksuit jacket sleeve and pulled out a shiny silver straight tobacco pipe that was filled and lit before Ma could blink.

Auntie had pulled her veil down in order to smoke her cigar. Her features had sharpened. She did look foxy but it seemed to be laid over her actual face. Like a double exposure. Ma looked over at Se and saw his tongue flick out. Snake. Fox.

The gods, as Ma had come to call them in his head, were now puffing away like chimneys with their smokes. Ma looked at the cigarette in his hand and took a tentative drag. Se clapped his hands three times and then waved a hand through the smoke.

The apartment receded into the background as their smoke trailed upwards. Painted stable rafters emerged slowly from the tendrils wreathing his vision.

He had been sitting with his leg crossed at the ankle, hand resting on his shoe. He felt suddenly leather under his hand and fur around his neck.

They were no longer sitting around the low table in the apartment sitting room but the three of them were around a small brazier just outside of an open stable door. Ma could hear horses muttering soft noises behind him.

Auntie was sitting demurely on a hay bale in a long dress, cloak trimmed in reddish fur and a complicated headdress. She still held her cigar but in a pale long fingered hand.

Se was sitting on wood splitting stump still in his tracksuit. Ma asked him curiously, “Why are you still dressed like that?”

Se grinned at him, and lisped, “Oh you noticed? This outfit is very comfortable. After an eternity in robes maybe I just like to have pockets.”

“So, let’s discuss what we are interested in Ma for and why we want him to come back.” Auntie’s heaven voice was younger.

Ma ran his hands over his sheepskin coat, then tucked his hands inside his sleeves in front. It was cold here. He could see his breath.

“Am I staying here now? Where am I anyway?” Ma looked around at the ornate stable behind them. He couldn’t see too far in the twilight of the surroundings. It looked like it was part of a larger complex of buildings.

“We just wanted to have a short discussion.” Se answered. “This looked like a good time to take you back for a moment. Before they catch you.”

Auntie Juiwei leaned over and hit Se with her scarf. While he rubbed at his arm, Auntie said smoothly, “This is a more neutral place than in the city. We can talk at length and not worry about being interrupted. The dog is helping also.”

Se rolled his eyes, “That one will be trouble. Our brother wants this one badly for something.” He pointed at Ma.

Ma felt more comfortable here in the cold, in these odd clothes. He smoked in silence while they continued to talk at him until there was a short lull in the words. “What do you want me to do?” he asked.

Auntie leaned forward into the light from the brazier, “You have to find the rest of the horses. That’s what you need to do.” She flicked her scarf at him, but he dodged.

“There are horses missing from here?” Ma looked back through the open stable doorway. He could see empty stalls here and there.

Se blew out a plume of smoke, “Yes. Almost half are still missing.”

Ma looked at the brazier coals. “And who or what is the dog you mention?”

Se sighed, “Your friend Pao? Her brother has a number of assistants. One of whom is sometimes referred to as the dog. It is not his name.”

“So are you both his assistants? For Pao’s brother?” Ma raised his eyes from the red coals.

Se met his stare with his own, golden eyes unblinking. “Yes. I am tied to him as are many of my kind. But not her. She is alone.”

Auntie said with a smile in her voice behind the veil, “But never lonely Ma. I have many helpers. The dog sometimes assists me as well as Se outside of their responsibilities with the brother. Actually, you know, that is a very good idea. When we have discussed a few more equine agenda items perhaps we will find the dog and speak with him.”

Se snorted, “I think the dog will find you Auntie.”

++++

Ma’s phone chirped startling him. The sound of a text. He glanced at it and then at Juiwei quickly. She nodded. Ma spread his now grimy hands and shrugged, “Ex-girlfriend.”

The other person with them, a tattooed man with red hair tied up in a messy bun, added, “Does she know that?” Then he laughed at his own joke. Ma touched the phone screen through the plastic bag and then blew the dust off to see still more texts from Shi.

Ma, Auntie Jiwei and the red-haired man who had introduced himself as Zu, were sitting in a somewhat smelly alley just behind a commercial street. Ma wasn’t exactly sure what time of day it was. He was hungry and covered in dust. He was not entirely sure how they returned from the stable. He had fallen asleep in his furs in the dark and then woken up here in the street in the humidity.

Ma and Auntie Juiwei were sitting on overturned 20 litre buckets. Zu was happily sitting on his heels, carefully smoking a cigarette down to the filter. Ma was certain that this person was the dog Auntie and Se had referred to in the conversation by the stables.

Auntie waited until Ma had read the text and replaced the phone in his pants pocket. Then she leaned over and grabbed his hand in a wiry grip. He felt her nails and tried not to snatch his hand back.

She looked at him intently, “Ma, do you have the wooden token I gave you the first time I met you?” Ma nodded. “Don’t lose that please. It allows you to go back and forth.” He patted his pocket. It was still there.

“Zu is not your friend.” She looked over at Zu who was looking stupidly at his shoes. “But I need him to help you for something even so.”

Auntie and Zu both laughed. In the darkness it looked like Zu’s eyes flashed red as he giggled. Zu nodded and flicked his cigarette butt down the alley into a puddle of something. “Zu here. I am Zu.” He said in a low voice.

Ma wasn’t sure if Zu had said ‘here I am Zu.’ Perhaps his name elsewhere was something else. Ma didn’t think he was human.

Zu spoke again more clearly this time. “She needs me to take a message back to my brother-.”

Auntie interrupted, “Ma you need to be somewhere safe for the moment.” She turned up her little face to him.

Zu laughed again, a harsh sound. “Safe in a prison.” He smiled and his teeth seemed a bit long when he did.

Auntie agreed, “Yes I think that sounds like a good idea. Zu. Ma will return to working.” She beamed. “He will wait there.”

Ma was startled, “Wait. What? I think I may be already fired.”

Auntie said somewhat slowly, as if speaking to a child, “Just go home and get ready for work. Then wait there. Please Ma. Zu will accompany you. To make sure you are safe. I think Pao might be there as well. Although perhaps no.”

Zu growled and then straightened up, searching his shorts pockets for something. He brought a hand out of his pocket clutching a crumpled 20 dollar note. “Noodles!” He said triumphantly and he handed the money to Ma.

Ma took the money and smoothed it out on his thigh looking down at the bill. It was old. It had a white man in an oval not the lion he was used to seeing.

“So I go home and then I go to the driver’s room?” He said slowly and put the cash in his pocket.

“Yes” both his companions said at the same time.

Zu continued. “Yes. Yes. Then we will know where you are.” And he blinked at Ma with his red eyes.


	21. Chariot Cannon Discover

Pao had been working in her cubicle since yesterday night, comparing the bombing case files. Sifting through the tissue of lies that Ju had created for some unknown reason she decided it was an interesting work of fiction.

She was guessing. She’d admit that even to Ju. But there was a definitely problem with the information in the files. She had been at two of the scenes herself with Ju. These descriptions didn’t connect.

She didn’t see any summaries of the CCTV security video they had collected together from the shops in the subway station. That man in the sunglasses and the hoodie didn’t appear anywhere in the notes.

The man who had looked sort of similar in size and posture to Ju. She had seen a few seconds of the video when they had picked it up from the store owner. But after that the video disappeared and she hadn’t found it yet.

She was distracted from staring at the files and chewing on her pen by the phone vibrating. Her phone had been ringing non-stop. Texts mostly from Ju but surprisingly a number from her brother.

She was actually waiting for a text or call from Ma. Nothing yet. She pushed her phone farther away, leaning it on the envelope that had been delivered to her from Ju.

She wondered if she would end up actually writing the report. Xiang was drawing her in to his stupid schemes. Her brother was in this somewhere. Ju wouldn’t do anything on his own. Her brother was certainly driving this case.

Pao stretched out her legs under the desk. It was tempting to put her head down but she avoided even thinking about napping.

She had a few document boxes left on the floor by her chair. She flipped through the blue files. She paused trying to shove the files back in the box. She thumbed back through the papers. There was a thin file was shoved in upside down at the back.

She wiggled it out of the papers and smoothed it out on her desk. The typed label read ‘Container Ships Oct 25’. She stopped and looked at it. No blue ball point handwriting on this one.  

She muttered to herself, “I certainly feel like I am getting closer but none of this…it is not exactly helping.” She flipped it open. Reading through the typewritten forms.

Or was it helping. This file was about trucks. Statements about trucks found near the burned car. Shipping container transport trucks.

Her phone rang again. She checked the caller ID. Ju. As she took the phone, she heard the elevator chime from across the floor. She guessed someone was starting their day. She answered the call. “Pao. Yes.”

“Ah. Detective Pao. You are finally available. Are you home at the moment?” Ju’s voice was silky on the phone.

“Why?”

“Just wondering if you need a ride to the office today. Weren’t you going to work through the case files as you had intimated back at the restaurant? Some reporting due for your boss?”

“I’m here already.”

“I could take you for coffee or get you breakfast perhaps? Bring you to my place for a short nap?”

“Are you listening to me Ju?”

“Oh yes, of course, you are there already. That’s a little awkward. You see so am I.”

Pao lowered the handset and looked up. Ju, hatless, was standing in the hall near the elevators holding up his phone with one hand. Pao hung up her phone.

“Jerk. Why are you calling me if you are here already?”

“Why are you reviewing files without me? And where did you get all these anyway?”

“Are you asking me why I have all your files here?”

Ju smiled easily at her and leaned against the desk. “Well actually I wasn’t going to give you all the files that you have here you know.”

“I know.”

Ju slid a tray of two coffees onto the desk. “Here, please. You look tired.”

Pao poked the cup with an outstretched finger, “What is it?”

“Coffee Tea.”

Pao took the cup, “Yes.”

“You’ve heard from Ma yet?”

“No. I was working. But my brother couldn’t find him yet? Or maybe you want to find him first for some other reason to do with the other two old guys?”

“Well, I think I need him for a slightly different reason than Xiang does.”

“You both are asses. Stop being so cryptic.” She sipped the sweet hot drink. “Tell me about the files. What exactly are you playing at with this?” She waved her hand at the blue files. “I can tell you faked most if not all of it. What was the point?”

“Eh, I have dreams of being a fiction writer. I was practicing.” Ju held his own drink and looked steadily at Pao.

“Seriously. What is the purpose of this Ju? Did you think no-one would read the entire thing? Now it looks like you are involved, planting bombs and setting fires. What should I conclude from these itemized and listed evidences that you faked the entire case file?”

“Che. Don’t be bitchy. I think you are just tired Pao.” Ju smiled again, catching sight of the small envelope on her desk. “Hey you didn’t open it yet. That’s actually how I knew you were here. That officer told me you were at your desk. I don’t mind that you are going through my files. But why haven’t you opened my delivery yet?”

“You shouldn’t be so kind to me all the time.” Pao pushed the envelope back towards Ju with one hand.

“Pao, just open it and say ‘you’re welcome’.”

Pao looked back up at him. “When you stop doing the things you are compelled to do and only do the things you prefer, then your true character is revealed. So no. I don’t want your gift. ”

Ju set down his cup and then took up the envelope. Holding it open and shaking it over his palm and out fell a ring made of green and white stone. Perhaps jade. A thick ring band and an animal or something carved in relief.

He held it out to her.

“How will this fit on my hand? It’s really a big size.” She took it in her fingers. It was very smooth. And cold. It felt old. Like something her brother would have given her. “Is it from my brother?”

Ju frowned theatrically, “No. It is from me. For you. So you know that I am thinking of you.”

Pao tried it on her index finger. It slipped off. She tried it on her thumb. It fit but barely. “Why do you think I need a gangster jade ring for?”

“Well.” Ju sipped his drink. “It’s old. And so am I.”

Pao turned back to the piles of paper on her desk. “Whatever Ju. I’m sure I’ll lose it soon anyway. You going to tell me about what exactly is going on with this bombing case? Perhaps you took a bribe that came with some responsibilities to cover up a crime?”

Ju got a chair from one of her neighbour’s desks and rolled it over to Pao’s. He fussed with his pant legs with his free hand and then sat down.

“This case is going to be a problem between us it seems.”

Pao began stacking the files into a pile to return them to the boxes. “Help me put these away. I have to have someone come and pick them up by 8:30. I took some files from the Director’s office that I wasn’t supposed to have access to.”

“As always I will defer to your organizational approach.” Ju didn’t make any move to assist her, sitting and sipping his drink, watching her pack up his faked paperwork.

“There will be a disciplinary inquiry you know. Based on this.” Pao patted the top file box. “It could get you suspended.”

“I may be looking into other opportunities at this time. Maybe I’ve done enough here in the PTU to date.”

Pao stared at him. “Did my brother recruit you to work for him? Will you just become a criminal then?”

Ju scoffed, “I am no criminal. Surely you know that by now about me. No?” He drained his coffee and tossed the cup into the recycling bin.

“That cup’s garbage you know, idiot.” Pao leaned forward to fish the cup out again. “You’d leave your job and risk jail for some stupid scheme of my brother’s?” She shook the cup at him.

“No, The scheme is not entirely stupid. But yes. I do work for your brother. We all do.” Ju crossed his legs and looked calmly back at her.

“So what is going on with him? He didn’t mention anything when we spoke yesterday except that he didn’t trust you and he needed Ma for something.”

Ju nodded at her red thread bracelet with the panda bead. “Yes I can see that he doesn’t like me. If he is giving you things like that. My feelings are so hurt by Xiang. He has always been so mean to me. A bully you might say.”

Pao pulled down her hand and the sleeve of her coat over her wrist hurriedly. “I don’t know. He gives me charms and amulets all the time. Not sure what this one is for exactly.”

“Are you calling for those boxes to be picked up or are you taking them down to records yourself?” Ju blinked at her.

“I’m not leaving you alone with these files. These are staying with me but I’ll call about the rest.” Pao’s phone rang again. Both of them bent over to see the caller ID.

“Ma!” They both exclaimed. Pao couldn’t help it, she grabbed at her phone, snatching it away from Ju.

“Hello? Hello Ma?” Pao turned away from Ju and listened to the phone.

Ju stood and moved slowly towards the desk. He flicked through a few of the remaining papers. He slid out a number of pages from the stack and tapped his fingers. Pao was listening intently to the phone. He checked again where she was and then slid the pages completely out of the file. The papers fell silently into the recycle bin. Pao still had her back to him.

Ju chanced a smug smile, turned and called out to Pao, “Who is it dear? Is our favourite police driver okay?”

Pao snarled at him and then turned back to the phone. A few moments later she hung up. She waved her hand at him. “Back off these case files. I don’t want you to touch them. And it wasn’t Ma.” She said crossly.

“Okay then.”

“Let me call for these records to be picked up and then I have to run an errand. Do you have somewhere to be Ju?”

“No not really. I could stay and help you…” He trailed off as she glared at him. Then he continued on, “Ah. Then. Right. I could go back to my office if you promise to let me know when Ma shows up. Please let me know if you find him?”

She hefted the boxes one on top of each other and stacked some rubber banded files on the top. She checked her laptop for the email from the records room. “Sure. I’ll tell you for sure.” She typed the records room number into her phone and looked up at Ju still sitting there.

“Hi. It’s Detective Pao. Can someone come and pick up the files I had retrieved for me yesterday? My desk. Thanks.”

“What’s wrong with you now Ju? I tell you that you are going to get fired you say nothing. I ask if my brother is making you break the law. You make a joke. Anything you want to tell me about whatever you are doing with Zu and that fortuneteller?”

Ju bowed his head slightly. “No worries Pao. You will present your report and I will defend it. And you know your brother doesn’t like me much so there’s that. I’ll go back to my office. Please answer my calls Pao.” He bowed slightly and turned to go.

Pao didn’t stop him. She had stood between him and the files while they were talking. She watched him wait and then get on the elevator. Her colleagues had begun to trickle in for the start of the workday. She didn’t waste any time.

Now she finished stacking the rest of the files and binders. She ripped off a page from her notepad and quickly wrote a note for the file clerks, sticking it on the top of the pile.

“Kevin?” She called to a detective sitting a couple of desks over. “Eh?” The youngish man with the crew cut turned in his chair towards her. “I’ve asked records to send a clerk to pick these up. Can you make sure they can find them? Blue jackets and these boxes.”

“Sure thing Pao. You been here all night?” Kevin was brushing off crumbs from his tie.

“Yes. I needed to review some stuff. I just have to run down to the basement right now.” She grabbed a smaller stack of files from the floor under her desk and walked quickly over to the elevator. She needed to pick someone up right now.


	22. Return to the Gun Mount

Ma sat with his arms resting on his thighs, hands between his legs, head down. He was staring at his shoes.  This was a very bad idea. The dog was sitting at his feet, panting and drooling slightly on his shoes.

Back in the alley, Auntie Juwei had stressed that he should stay at work until he was needed. Ma wasn’t entirely sure about being safer at work. Shi had been texting him continuously, in fact even more than when they were going out if that was possible.

He also wasn’t sure how Zu was going to stay out of trouble in the police HQ. Zu had been let out of jail apparently by that other guy and was some kind of criminal. Surely someone would recognize him if he was hanging around the hallways of the busy police station. 

But then, although Ma hadn't actually seen it happen, that tough red haired man had changed at some point into an actual dog between leaving Ma's apartment and arriving at police HQ. 

They had gotten on the Wan Chai minibus by Ma’s apartment and Ma had dozed off on the drive downtown. When the driver shook him to wake him up he angrily pointed a finger at Ma’s feet and told him to get the dog off the bus. Ma was confused. He looked around for Zu but hadn’t been able to see his red hair anywhere.

Ma asked the driver if he had seen a red haired man in a tracksuit. The driver frowned, shook his arm and claimed Ma had gotten on alone. Ma apologized again and had gotten himself and the dog out of the bus.

The dog which was now sitting with him in the hallway across from the drivers' break room. Ma sighed again. The dog pricked up its ears and seemed to smile at him before putting its head back down. A shaggy red furred head lying on Ma's feet.

"Ma? Ma! We thought you had quit!" He lifted his head again to see two drivers leaning out of the break room. "What's the dog for? Are you working? Why was the PTU asking Fat Meng about you?" They didn't wait for him to answer, just kept asking him things.

The dog raised its head again and looked steadily at the other drivers. "Uh. I'm back now." Ma wrung his sweaty hands together. "The dog?" He trailed off. He knew one of the drivers walking over to the bench he was sitting on. Raymond. Likes to play cards and quit smoking at new years. He couldn't quite remember the other guy with the pale crew cut holding a phone in his hand.

The dog growled at the second guy.

"I'm waiting for someone to come and get me. I have an interview." Ma stumbled on the last part of the agreed on script. He was supposed to say he had an appointment if anyone asked. The dog got up suddenly and then was nosing at the second man's legs. Lips pulling back from bared teeth. The other driver lowered his phone.  Raymond looked over at him, "Hey. Why're you taking a picture of Ma?"

Ma staggered to his feet, using the wall to prop himself up. "I'm going to go see where my appointment is." He turned and walked down the hall headed somewhere, to get away from the driver's room. The dog stood for a moment, staring at the second driver and then turned and padded softly after Ma.

Ma could hear Raymond asking the guy again about the photo. He didn't hear the answer but that second guy did put his phone away finally. Maybe Pao's brother had a spy in the drivers’ roster? Whatever.

Dog brushed past his legs and stood in front of him almost tripping him up. The dog nodded back the way they had come. Ma sighed for a third time and turned back towards the bench in front of the traffic warden coordinator's desk across from the break room. His shirt was sticking to his back, he was overheated. He noticed there was a dark dirt smear where he had touched the wall leaving the bench. He didn't bother wiping it off. The dog had slunk under the bench and stayed there.

Ma ran through the plan in his mind again. Auntie had been quite clear. Stay here until Pao or someone comes to get him. Dog stays with him at all times. Don't go anywhere. Don't do anything. Avoid taking any assigned pickups from the coordinator. Don't run any errands for drivers. Don't talk about Pao's brother. Don't talk about heaven. Don't talk to the dog. Keep the dust to a minimum.

It certainly had seemed like a better plan back in that laneway with Auntie and Zu. That experience felt like a dream. He tapped his jacket pocket and felt the crinkling plastic bag for his phone. He had wanted to call someone to confirm what he was supposed to be doing but the dog was acting as his shepherd. He had Pao's phone number. Or he could have called Shi. He was hungry now. He looked hopefully down at the dog. The dog seemed to shake its head, rolling its eyes at him.

Once they had made it to Ma’s apartment, Ma had begged to have a shower, showing off his dusty wrists. Zu frowned and then grudgingly agreed to it. He stood very close to Ma as he undressed in the cramped front room with the bed.

Ma tried glaring. No luck. He coughed and asked, “Could you let me get undressed?” Zu shrugged and kept staring. “No problem Brother Ma. Please. Prepare for your bathing. No?” But he didn’t move at all away or turn his face from Ma.

Ma sighed and avoided Zu’s odd red eyes by walking the few steps to the bathroom and then just shutting the door in his face. He had dropped his dusty clothes on the shower floor and kicked them to the side. A puff of dust coiled upwards. He had left muddied footprints on the damp tiles. Under the shower spray Ma closed his eyes and wondered if he had lost his job.

Ma thought that Zu had stood almost at attention in the hall back to the closed apartment door facing the room until Ma had gotten dressed in his uniform. Only then he had turned and stood patiently facing the door waiting.

When they had left the apartment building, Ma had left dusty fingerprints on the elevator buttons. He had tried to wipe off his hands on his coat.. Zu had laughed and offered him a towel he had wrapped around his neck.

Ma took it only because he didn’t want to get his uniform dirty and the damn dust was getting out of control. He offered it back to Zu after trying to scrape the dust from his fingers. Zu shook his head and refused. Ma shoved it in his bag as they walked over to catch the minibus.

Ma sighed and remained sitting uncomfortably on the bench. They hadn’t made it to the convenience store before they checked in at work. When they had left Ma’s cramped and dusty apartment, he had asked Zu if he wanted that money back. Zu laughed and waved him off, “I have no need of money. I was given it a while ago and I am happy to have Brother Ma spend it. Noodles are good. Aren’t they?”

Ma had stuffed a few other things in the backpack at home: phone charger, socks, a novel, a pen, that antique money and cigarettes. He had figured he could always use the excuse that he needed to share his location with the snake guy with his smoke.

Now here in the hallway he had put the bag down on the floor next to the dog under the bench. Zu’s tail thumped against the bag. Dust motes flew. Ma stared at the dust as it settled back down again on the floor. He leaned down to run his finger through it but was interrupted.

"Ma!" Her voice carried down the hallway. Finally. He felt the dog brush past and stand in front of him. Tail wagging and thumping his shins. It was Pao calling him. She had an armful of blue jacketed files.

“How long have you been here?” She sounded concerned. “Are you alone? Who found you or did you come here of your own accord? Where were you after you asked me to come get you? I went to the bus stop but you weren’t there.” Pao’s tone had softened by the end of all that.

She was standing in front of him. The dog crept out and smelled her shoes. She squeaked and stepped back looking hard at Ma. “Ah, a dog?” She said curiously.

Ma apologized, “Sorry. They made me bring him. I wasn’t sure what to do with him. He figured this out as a plan to deal with not being recognized.” Ma waved his hands ineffectually at the dog.

Pao looked at the dog. “No way! This is crazy.” She bent down, clutching her files, and looked at the dog more closely. The dog looked back at her.

She laughed abruptly. The dog startled slightly and then smiled a toothy dog smile. Pao looked up at Ma. “No way. This is him isn’t it? Today just keeps getting stranger.”

Smiling, she stood up and held up the files in her hands. “I need to take these upstairs and I think I need you,” she paused, “and him,” looking at the dog, “to come with me back to my office. Can you wait up there with me? Do I need to sign you out?” 

Ma hung his head, “I am not on the schedule for today. Uh. Because of the last couple of days I guess.”

Pao said confidently, “No problem. Let’s get it straightened out right now. Where is your co-ordinator anyway?” 

Ma pointed at the counter down past the drivers’ room.

“Come on Ma. Let’s see what we can do about this. Now that I’ve found you I don’t really want anyone else booking you for a couple of days.” Pao sailed off down the hall.

Ma looked at the dog. The dog looked at him and then turned and trotted after Pao.


	23. Three Piece Combination

Ju was sitting in his empty office with the door closed. He had rested his head on the desktop while he listened to the man on the other end of the cellphone on the desk. A relentless barrage of complaint was coming out of the speakerphone.

“Brother Xiang…” Ju began but his voice was lost under the wave of irritation that poured out of the phone.

“Brother if I might just answer…” Ju tried again. Xiang continued furious.

“But Pao was going through the files alone…” Xiang stopped talking. Then his imperious voice said, “Okay. Sure. Apologize Ju. Begin.”

Ju took a breath and then responded. “Brother Xiang, thank you for calling me today. I did manage to remove the pages from the report that specifically indicate the container ship information. The remainder of the files she has reviewed are not useful for solving the case and will not help her complete a report.”

Xiang’s voice came through clearly “You are a fool Ju. She shouldn’t have been reviewing the files. Sort it out please. I’m on a tight timeframe for this one. I need the rest of the horses and I especially need that horse of Pao’s.”

“Yes of course brother.”

“And also, Ju, you’ll need to find Zu and that snake. I need Ma if this is going to work at all.”

“And my payment?”

“You won’t get paid at all if you don’t find them today. Enough Ju.” Xiang sounded snappish. “Just do it.” Xiang hung up after that.

Ju clicked the button on his phone to disconnect then he reached over and turned his hat to face the other side of his desk. He didn’t get up to open the office door.

He sat up and picked up his phone again. Dialled a number and shuffled around in a desk drawer to find a pen and a paper. He flipped up a small mirror and checked his hair. The phone was answered, he dropped the mirror back into the drawer and gave his full attention to the phone.

“Hey Snake. Se. It’s me. Who was using Ma’s phone? Pao got a call about 40 minutes ago. But then she said it wasn’t him phoning.”

Ju sat with the pen at the ready.

“Zu is with him.” Se’s voice was silky. “And he’s there.”

“Here?” Ju was startled.

“Yes.” Se’s monosyllabic answer held the ‘s’ for a beat too long.

“Where is he? I just came from talking to Pao. I don't think she could fool me if she had him with her.” Ju narrowed his eyes at the grey wall facing his desk. “Your thoughts fortune teller?”

“She has him with her. Did you know that the dog is there also?”

“Shit.” Ju looked at the phone. “No I did not know that. What is that stupid fox up to anyway. Xiang will…”

Se interrupted, “Yes yes. That’s fine. You will find her there somewhere. It is just the one building right? And Ma will be with her. That dog though. Are you up for Zu if he decides to be difficult? Such old men.”

Ju didn’t know if Se was referring to him, the three of them or just Zu. Sometimes he did feel very old.

He clucked into the phone. “No worries. I can smell him now that I know where he is right? So do you think that old woman fox is helping or hindering this time,” Ju teased his friend. “You know I value your opinion, old man.”

Se sighed theatrically, “I checked the signs. Aunty Fox is trying to get things back where they were. Back where they were supposed to be. I guess she is helping as much as she is able given her irritating propensity for meddling.”

Ju had a thought, “So she is avoiding contact with Xiang?”

“Prudently so I imagine, yes.”

“Have you been in contact with her?”

Se didn’t answer right away but then said sharply, “Possibly.”

“You know you lisp when you are lying Se.”

There was a sharp knock on Ju’s office door.

“I have to go Se. Please don’t do anything to tip the balance here.”

“Hmm.” Se didn’t say anything and hung up.

The person outside his office knocked again. Harder this time.

Ju swiped his phone off and stood up. He sighed and brushed off his pant leg. He walked a little stiffly to the office door and opened it with a flourish.

Ma’s girlfriend Shi stood there. She was sobbing into a Kleenex.

Ju frowned at the woman in front of him. Ah. Right. The ex-girlfriend Shi. “So. Er. Shi is it? What can I do for you today?”

Ju made no move to invite her into his office. He made a small point of stepping outside the office door to speak with her.

Between stagey sobs, Shi muttered, “Ma is back at work. You had said if I heard from him to let you know.”

She looked up at him with tears welling in her eyes. “He wouldn’t answer my texts. And then Vanessa in traffic came by and told me that she had see Ma in the basement across from the drivers’ room. So I was going to take a break anyway but I didn’t want to go alone so but by the time I found Chrystal he was already gone. But he had been sitting on a bench and there was that stupid dust that is all over his shoes all the time so I know he had been there.”

She caught her breath mid-sob, “But when I went down to see, that driver I had seen before, Leung I think he said his name was, who said he was Ma’s friend, said he had left already with that Detective.” She waved her phone at him, “You see? He won’t answer my texts. Charlotte was right!” Her voice had risen almost to a shriek at that point.

Ju pinched his nose between two fingers and closed his eyes. “Can you say all that again once more for me dear?” He was trying to keep his voice level.

She took a deep breath. “Ma is here at the office. With Pao. And a dog for some reason. But I don’t know where they went and my friend Angela on that floor didn’t see them herself. She just heard about it from Kevin. So I can’t find him.”

Ju was confused, “You can’t find Kevin?”

Shi was irritated with him. “No stupid, Ma. I can’t find Ma. He isn’t at Pao’s desk..”

Ju got it now. “Ah. So you’d like me to find him and perhaps give him a message from you?”

Shi tossed her head, “No. What would I have to say to that jerk anyway? I just wanted to let you know that he was here somewhere.”

Ju asked gently, “Would any of your other friends have seen either Pao, Ma or the dog at this time?”

Shi made a sound, “Pfft. As if I care about him now.” She blotted at her ruined makeup with the sodden Kleenex.

Ju groaned inwardly, “But surely the fact that you care about his whereabouts must change his mind? Such a lovely woman, and so deeply in love?” Ju felt more foolish talking to this silly woman than he had in eons. “Let me go see if I can find him and I will tell him to answer your texts. Perhaps that would be helpful for the situation?”

Shi snuffled into the Kleenex and then nodded. “Ask him if he would like to see me maybe. I think he broke up with me because of Auntie. Auntie didn’t like him. She thought he wasn’t marriage material because he is broke and his English is bad. But he can come over to my apartment. For some reason, Auntie got stopped at the Macau ferry terminal with some jade bracelets.” Shi sniffed again, “So he can come over.”

Ju could not help himself, “Bracelets?”

“Auntie was bringing them home in her luggage but didn’t declare them so she was detained until she can pay the fine. She will be back in two days. It is so weird, she has had such bad luck this last trip. As if she was cursed or something.”

Ju just nodded. Perhaps. Perhaps that was why Ma had gone to Temple Street in the first place. Auntie sounded like a force to be wary of.

“That’s how she stocks her store on the Jade street. Sometimes she even puts the Buddha pendants in her bra when she comes home. Auntie has a friend who meets her in Macau from Vietnam. That’s where she gets all of it. The jade that is.”

Ju interrupted her gently, “Miss. You are aware I am a policeman and you are in a police station and you are talking about counterfitting? Let’s move along from this. Let me see if I can find your Ma here and get him to call you. Give me your number?”

Shi held out her phone to him. Ju got some reading glasses out of his uniform shirt breast pocket and entered his number into her phone. Then pressed a button. His phone trilled in his pant pocket. He hung up and handed her back her phone and then gently steered her away from his office.

He gave her a little shove once they were past the junior PTU officers’ desks and made his escape with the minimum of fuss. She had stopped in the hallway to turn back to him.

He waved at her as he made his way to the elevators to head down once again to the basement.


	24. Flying Daggers

Pao was guessing. She’d admit that even to Xiang. But she knew that there was a problem with Ju’s case files. She knew it. She clenched her fists and glared at the desk. It was so obvious but she couldn't quite get the whole picture.

Her phone was ringing. Pao moved to answer it.

Standing next to the desk, Ma touched the little terracotta statue on Paos’s desk with a dirty finger. Pao was talking to someone about a report.

The dog lifted its head. The statue rolled off the envelope and onto the desk, a ring fell out onto the papers underneath.

Ma picked it up. Green streaked and a creamy white. Stone. He guessed it was real jade. It was heavy in his hand and it felt old. Carved with a design on the ring band and some kind of animal maybe in relief.

Pao was holding the phone to her ear. “I’m on hold. Is that a ring in that envelope from Ju?”

Ma asked her, “Why did he give you this?” Something caught his eye. “There’s a card in the envelope.” Ma slid the envelope over to her. Pao shifted the phone receiver to the other ear and held it with a scrunched up with her shoulder. She hooked the ring on her index finger while she looked first at the card and then at the envelope again.

That same ink. Ju had written a poem or something. Something short. Pao blushed and turned away from Ma slamming the phone down on the desk.

“What is it Ma’am?” Ma had reverted back to his nervous driver work persona.

“It’s nothing. I think he is making a stupid joke. He’s quoting from the Romance of the Western Wing. He so stupid with his dumb stupid jokes.” Pao was furious.

Ma blinked. “Okay.”

She crumpled up the paper.

The dog came closer to her legs and sniffed at the ring. The dog barked. Once softly. Pao noticed a colleague or two peering over the cubicle walls.

“He’s evidence.” She called out waving her hand and smiling in their direction. “I know right? Dogs!”

She turned hurriedly back to the desk her expression darkening. “I don't want his gift. What is he thinking.”

She tossed the ring down by the phone. “He’s going to have to tell me what is going on.” She glared at the dog. “And so are you. This is so disturbing to me on so many levels.”

She thought about the trucks going between the container ship terminal and the factory. That was what she needed to know. Her brother and his weird employees. That suitcase full of cash. Who Ma was to them exactly.

The red dog was nosing at the ring on her desk. Ma was somehow dozing off, now sitting with his back against the filing cabinet on the floor.

The dog sat down between Ma and the carpeted aisle after it knocked the ring onto the floor. It chewed at the ring on the carpet with a paw holding it in place.

Ma’s head was on his knees. The dog stopped worrying the ring and licked briefly at a thin line of dust near Ma’s boots. There was a cracking sound, the dog grimaced and snapped its mouth open and shut a few times with a little whine.

The dog nosed the ring towards Pao. She stooped down and picked it up. She looked at it again and then replaced it on the desk.

Pao patted the dog’s head. “Okay guys, Ma wake up. I have an idea. Let’s get Zhu off this floor. The next shift is starting at 8. I need to have you both out of here by then.”

Pao nodded at them both confidently. Much more confidently than she felt.

**************************

Ju looked out over Pao’s unit. He was standing near the elevator. The floor was filling up with officers and admins just starting their workday.

As he walked over to her desk he noticed the stacks of files were gone from her now tidied desk. Sitting next to the laptop was a folded piece of white paper. On top of that was the jade ring. He picked it up. He thought it smelled like dog in her cubicle. That was a nice trick Zhu had going there.

Ju held the ring in his fingertips away from him. He noticed it was cracked right through the creamy white streak.

Se had laughed over the phone at him when he had mentioned his idea of giving that ring to Pao.

Se had hissed at him, “Why don’t you just call her on the phone? I’ve heard that’s what people do these days when they want to get in contact with someone. Not piss about with magical rings.”

Ju had shut him down, ignored him. And now he didn’t know where she was. When Ju was in the elevator on the way down here he had fixed his hair in the mirror for a few floors. Then he had taken advantage of being alone to see if he could use the ring. All he had gotten was his fingers burned for his trouble. Now he could see why.

Se was right. He often was too old fashioned in his approach. He flicked the now dull ring with his index finger. He felt something divide or break sharply like cut strings in the air. He swept the ring into his jacket pocket and gazed at Pao’s desk for some kind of inspiration.

“Inspector Ju?” he heard a timid voice behind him.

Young guy. High pompadour haircut, white shirt, tie and jeans. Obviously detective squad. It was the uniform now.

“And you are?” Ju pulled himself back into the present. He lightly touched his rolled up beret under his epaulet. Never hurts to remind the rank and file of the rank, he thought.

“Kevin, sir.” The guy stood straighter and handed Ju an envelope. He cleared his throat nervously.

“From Pao.” He coughed during her name, his face turning a dark shade. Embarrassed he slapped at his chest with no real effect.

Ju stood where he had stopped, holding the paper. He leaned forward, “Do you require assistance Kevin?”

Kevin spluttered, “No. No. Sir. Okay. I’m okay.” Kevin backed away to return to his desk.

Ju could see Kevin looking at him furtively over the cubicle wall.

Ju opened the envelope, sliding his finger under the flap. The paper read in Pa’s clean script: ‘I’m in the video conference room on the 11th floor with Ma. Bring food. They are hungry.’

Ju muttered to himself, “Like throwing a meat bun at a dog.” He paused and turning on his heel, he walked back over to Kevin’s desk.

“So sorry to disturb you Kevin.” Ju was at his most imperious.

Kevin looked like he was about to faint.

“Inspector. Ju. What can I do. Assist you with?” Kevin was choking again. He leapt to his feet knocking over his teacup. The tea pooled slowly on the desktop, the lid making an idle circle in the mess.

Ju waved his hand, “Go on. Tidy that up and I’ll ask my question.”

Kevin began to mop at his desk with a paper napkin, burning face downturned.

“I’m terribly sorry to interrupt your,” Ju paused here, “Tea break.” He took a step forward. Kevin took a step back.

“I was wondering if your knew the answer to a silly question.”

Kevin nodded at Ju as if his head was on a string while still mopping up.

Ju continued, “I need to pick up some snacks or a meal for your colleague Pao. Can you suggest anything or make any recommendations for preferences she might have in foods?”

Kevin looked more confident. “Noodles. Buns. Rice pancake. Malay Laksa soup. Tea smoked chicken. Fruit. Ice cream.” Then he shut his mouth with an embarrassed snap.

“Ah. You have some expertise in this area Kevin. Wonderful. Thank you.” Ju left Kevin staring at him as he walked to the elevator.

Ju strode off mentally cursing Pao not for the first time this morning.

++++++++++++

Ma was snoring softly, head down on the conference table. His feet under the table twitching, his hands on either side of his head grabbed at something in his dreams.

Pao stared past the glow of her laptop out the window. The blinds were open with a view of the building opposite and a tangle of wires and utility poles. The conference room was dim with the lights off.

She was procrastinating. She had only made the motions of writing up the bombing report to try and squeeze more information out of Ju. She hadn’t actually thought she would complete the report.

Now she was sitting in this little room with Ma and unsure what to do with him. She had felt compelled to block her brother. And she always liked to screw with Ju just out of habit. She wasn’t sure what to do with this magical idiot and a narcoleptic police driver now. That dog was simply too much for her to even consider.

She had been patting Zhu’s doggy head earlier downstairs wondering aloud if he was first a dog changed into a man or a man changed into a dog. Now he was the man she had met in the noodle shop yesterday.

It had also been very apparent to Pao that he was now a man who was naked. Ma had no idea where the clothing that Zhu had worn to Police HQ had disappeared to.

So Ma had gone to find some clothing for him from the drivers’ break room while Pao had blushed and stammered until Ma had returned with the ill-fitting shirt and pants.

She could see that Zhu was currently an example of an aggressive and volatile man. Zhu was almost at attention, staring intently at the closed conference room door.

Zhu leaned even more forward suddenly interrupting her thoughts. He faced towards the door lips pulling back from his teeth. Pao was reminded again that animals don’t smile because they are happy.

Pao stood up. “Zhu?”

“He’s coming.” His voice was low.

“My brother?” Pao hesitantly moved toward Zhu, but decided not to touch his arm, then dropping hers.

“The old man. Ju.” Zhu smiled and then licked his lips. “And noodles.” He sounded much happier. He leaned forward and flicked Ma roughly on the head. “Up driver. Wake up.”

Ma yawned and sat up, rubbing the top of his head. Pao thought she could see a halo of dust motes around him in the gloom.

She heard a light knock on the door. Zhu was at it in a flash, “Who?”

Pao heard the sigh from the other side of the door quite clearly from where she was standing.

“It’s me. Ju. And I have food as requested. Hello Pao. I hear you have Ma in there also. Please open up before I drop your snacks.”

Zhu opened the door and had the plastic bags on the table before Pao could even turn to the door.

“Well then you are certainly welcome Dog.” Ju sounded a bit irritated. He closed the door behind himself and stood in front of it frowning at them all.

Pao moved back to sit down by her laptop. Ju slid past Ma and Zhu to take a seat opposite from her. First dusting off the seat, he fussed with his pants, holding out the crease as he sat.

“Well Pao. What have you come up with for your report?”

Pao listened to the conversation between Zhu and Ma for a moment, currently arguing over if Ma should go wash his dirty hands before eating.

She looked at her laptop, “But what are you doing Ju? You’ll lose your job over this.”

“I won’t go to jail if that’s what you mean. I was here because I need him. And here he is!” Ju gestured towards Ma.

Ma’s head swiveled towards them chewing a steamed bun. He had not washed his hands after all that. His dirty fingers left light tan streaks on the pale dough in his hand.

“Don't get me wrong Pao, I respect the uniform and the career.” He touched his shirt pocket over his heart with his fingertips gently over his nametag. “But you must have figured it out by now. No? I won’t be completing a reflection report this time.” He grinned.

She stared at Ju’s handsome face. She would have never guessed that he would actually throw away his career for a bribe or was it for finding Ma.

“Will you explain it to me?” She knew she sounded plaintive but she continued. “My brother has something to do with this. Perhaps he gave you the suitcases of money and you do some work with the container transport. I found a file-“

Ju leaned forward at that, “A file eh? Memory is not better than the weakest ink. So there is a file. Should we really be discussing this here?” He pointed at the ceiling and around the room, and then held the finger up to his mouth.

“Oh god Ju, you going to use that as an excuse not to talk to me now? I think you owe me at least an explanation.”

Zhu’s growl filled the small dark room.

Pao held him back. “It is fine. Fine.”

She huffed, “So where do you want to talk? Where can we talk about this? I just want to know. I don’t understand the entire thing. Any of it.”

Ju smiled again. “Yes. Of course. Let’s go to my home.”

Ma had started hurriedly to pack up the food. Zhu stared at Ju. “Your apartment? That would be fine if Brother agrees.”

Ju sighed and pulled out his phone. “Give me a minute then.” He tapped on the phone calling her brother she supposed.

Pao gave him a look but began to pack up her stuff as well. “I’ll call for a car?”

Ju frowned and waved his hand at her. He was speaking to her brother in a low voice with an undertone of complete servitude. It made the hair on the back of her neck rise slightly.

“Yes yes. Of course Brother. I will endeavor to make that happen. I do have him here. Although to be clear. Pao has him at the moment.” Ju closed his eyes as he spoke.

“But of course. I believe the dog has two masters.”

Zhu laughed softly and shook his head.

Ju continued on the phone, “Well. I don't have to kill him no. The fox. As you wish Brother." Pause. "I want to take the three of them back to my apartment. Yes. To discuss.” Pause.

“Yes.” Pause.

“Absolutely.” His voice rose slightly. “Yes Brother. Please confirm with her. Certainly.” His eyes snapped open.

“My liege.” Pause.

“Farewell Brother.” Ju hung up.

Pao realized she had been holding her breath.

Ju said glumly. "He's going to call you. We have a trust issue."


	25. Soldier Cross the River

The street Ju’s building was on was quiet. Most of the stores had not yet set up for business. Ma could hear the traffic farther away.

He was sitting on the lintel of the frosted glass door for the stairs leading up to the apartment. He had stuck a magazine in the door hinges to keep it open. His legs were on the sidewalk. He was still in his driver’s uniform.

Ma was smoking and watching Zhu wash his hair in the street.

“That’s kind of old fashioned.” Ma exhaled a thin stream of smoke as he watched.

Zhu looked over at him with one red eye, barely pausing as he tossed another basin of water over his soapy hair. “They finished up there yet?”

Ma studied the end of his cigarette. “They seem to still be discussing the plan.”

Ma could in fact still hear their muffled yelling. Pao appeared to be motivated by some higher power because she was mad. She was giving Ju the gears. Ju was attempting to hold his own but failing to maintain the firm polite approach.

Ma could hear the angry words of Pao’s slightly higher voice but Ju’s low shouting was indiscernible from where he was sitting. He watched Zhu finish rinsing his hair from the pail of water in front of him.

Zhu flicked his wet hair back, and then twisted his long hair into a rope, squeezing out the water. He had an old flannel that he patted over the twist to get the drips. He ran it down his neck and over his shoulders. When he had dried off enough, he got his shirt off the bumper of Ju’s Land Rover that he had been using as a washstand.

Ma thought that Zhu made a passable human.

Ma whistled sharply. Zhu’s head snapped immediately around at him. Ma sniggered and lit another cigarette. Zhu huffed, setting the basin to one side, he dumped the bucket into the gutter. Grunting slightly as he tipped it out, stepping to the side to avoid getting water on his shoes.

Zhu pulled at his shirt. Clothing didn't ever seem to fit him properly. He was now in a tshirt from a junky clothing store around the corner.

They had come here from Police HQ in Ju’s car. Ju and Pao’s conversation had bee clipped as they ‘discussed’ her brother’s past and his part in some larger crime plan. Ma had fallen asleep on the drive over. Pao hadn’t been talking about the fortune tellers, Zhu or why Xiang wanted him. Ju hadn’t been talking about that either.

Ma called out to Zhu who was putting the bucket back on the sidewalk upside down to dry out. “So what am I supposed to be anyway?”

Zhu walked over and crouched down on the sidewalk, sitting on his heels. He loosely braided his hair making it look even more like long red silk rope. He left it unbound at the end.

Ma offered him the cigarette pack and the lighter. There was a shout and a crash from the apartment above them Neither of them turned to look.

Zhu lit his cigarette and took a deep drag, handing back the pack. He looked at the lighter, turning the wheel and flicking it to make a spark. He didn’t exhale.

Rather matter of factly he said, “You’re the groom. Imperial stables. In heaven.” He pointed a thick forefinger at the sky.

Ma had found Zhu’s red eyes didn’t bother him as much now that he had seen him as a dog. “Who are you then?”

“T’ien Kou. I’m the dog.” Zhu tilted his head to the side, smiling with the cigarette clamped in the corner of his mouth.

“You aren’t black though. You don’t have black fur when you are a dog.” Ma scratched the back of his head. He wanted to wash his hair too but he wouldn’t do it in the street.

“I like red now.”

They sat in silence for a while. Ma noticed that Zhu inhaled with obvious enjoyment but the smoke went somewhere because he never exhaled. The din upstairs died down a bit but was still going. It sounded like they were shouting but not screaming now.

Ma exhaled, “So what do these magical old men want from me exactly?”

“Find the horses. Bring them back. Stay in heaven.”

“Am I human then?”

“I guess.” Zhu paused. “No.” Ma’s heart sank again. Zhu didn’t seem to care. He was more concerned with smoking his cigarette right down to the filter.

“You were in charge of thousands of heavenly horses. The monkey let them out. You were lost.”

Ma looked at him and then down at his dirty shoes. He felt a bit like crying. Today just couldn’t get any stranger.

“Now you are found.” Zhu made it all sound so reasonable.

“So what does Pao’s brother have to do with any of this then?” The shadow of Xiang hung between the two of them like a cloud.

Zhu perked up, nodding, “Brother Xiang has been promised what he wants if he manages to return you and the horses.” He flicked his cigarette into the street, jerking his head at the stairs behind Ma.

Ma listened for a moment, hearing nothing of note he stood up, brushing the dust off his pants. He asked, “You think they’re finished yet? Ju has to be defeated now.”

Zhu uncoiled, stood up and cracked his back.

“You aren’t very smart now.” Zhu said. “You used to be clever.”

Ma said nothing. Cheeks starting to burn with embarrassment, Ma scrambled desperately to think of a comeback to that.

Zhu brushed at one of his ears then crouched down again. “They’re still fighting. Ju will not tell her the whole truth it seems. Or maybe she won’t believe him.”

“What’s Pao’s part in all this?” Ma was trying to make relationship diagrams in his head.

Zhu smoked. “Collateral.” He smiled with his sharp teeth at Ma.

“Really. Collateral for what?”

Zhu didn’t answer that.

Ma sighed dramatically and shook his head, dust flying. Forget it. Too many cryptic references he couldn’t connect. He stood up. “I’m going to get some food. You know a place?”

Zhu pointed at the corner down the street. “Down there. Noodles.”

“Ah.” Ma tossed him the cigarette pack and stood up. “Of course always the noodles Dog. Let me know when they’re finished in there.”

++++

The stall guy in the damp apron looked at the money in Ma’s hand suspiciously.

“Nah. I won't take that. Too old. And look, it’s so dirty.”

Ma stared at the guy and then at the crumpled notes from Zhu in his hand. “But it’s money isn’t it?”

The guy snatched a note out of Ma’s fingers with a thin puff of dust spiraling into the air. “Not good for anything.” He waved it in Ma’s face and then stuffed it back into Ma’s hand closing his fingers and shoving his hand back across the counter at him.

“Hey rich man. You taking this up to that peacock Ju?” The cook was staring at Ma intently.

“Yes?” Ma stuttered his answer into sort of an embarrassed question. He shoved the money back in his pocket.

The stall guy snorted and turned to the stove, clattering around with his back to Ma.

“Put your old dirty money away. I’ll make his. What you want eh? Shrimps? Fish to go in that gaping stupid face of yours? Or meat?”

Ma was interrupted before he could answer.

“Yep. Meat. “ Zhu had appeared at his elbow. Sniffing face forward with a grin. He tapped the menu on the window. ”And this one. I like this one.”

“Blood tofu soup?” Ma read off the window. “If I can add it on-

Interrupting Ma, the man at the stove didn’t even turn around. “Dog? Yes I know you like that one. Of course. You never order anything else. Just sit over there.”

“But you won’t take my money.” Ma sounded plaintive even to his own ears.

“You wait.” The cook spoke slowly as if to a child. “You sit.” The aproned man pointed aggressively with his chopsticks at the little stools. “Ju will pay for this later.” Waving the long chopsticks wildly to make them go, he turned back to his burners. They were dismissed with a curt headshake.

Zhu loped to the stools and dropped into a crouch. Ma sat, “No chair Zhu?” Zhu just grinned, “Noodles.” He added, “You can’t remember.”

Ma thought about what he couldn’t remember. “Heaven?” He shrugged. “No. But the dust does seem to get worse when I am remembering.”

Ma rubbed his fingertips together with his thumb, watching the trickle of pale dust fall to the sidewalk.

“Does it hurt?” Zhu’s red eyes were on him.

“No not remembering doesn’t hurt. I felt sick when Auntie Fox showed me and I felt sick when we went back. Like the motion sickness when Se showed me.”

Zhu made a low noise that Ma took as agreement or sympathy. “You’re very dirty.”

Ma looked down at the dust drifting from his pant legs. “It gets worse when I’m around, you know, imaginary people.” Ma shot a quick glance at Zhu. “I didn’t mean it badly-“

“No.” Zhu paused. “Heavenly people. You are also heavenly.” He continued. “Does it hurt to forget?”

Sometimes Zhu got stuck in the conversation.

“No I sleep all the time and I’m dusty. And I have no idea what is going on.” Ma was getting irritated.

Zhu blew out his cheeks and exhaled. “That could be good.”

Ma looked at him a little bit more closely. “So you want to stay here then? Being human?”

Zhu snapped his head up grinning. “Food’s ready!”

Ma looked over at the storefront. The apron guy was holding up two hands full of plastics bags. Bulging with Styrofoam containers.

Zhu was at the counter. The guy gave him some more harsh words on behalf of Ju Ma guessed. It was a dialect he wasn’t familiar with but he thought he heard Ju’s name a couple of times.

Then the guy set his eyes on him and yelled over, “Hey you cheapskate over there, Get some real money before you order something next time. Or go somewhere else for your meal. The corner store sells all this stuff. You cook it yourself if you don’t want to pay me. So screw you!” Chopsticks waving.

Ma stood just behind Zhu’s broad back. Zhu swung the bags slightly and turned to the cook. “Quiet there. Or I’ll have to teach you to be quiet.”

The cook slammed some pots or something around and disappeared from view behind the counter.

They stood for a moment on the sidewalk. “Do you think they have finished their fight now?” Ma asked.

Zhu nodded. “We shall find out.” They began to walk back to the apartment

Zhu asked, “So you don’t miss the horses?”

Ma answered lightly, “You can’t miss what you don’t remember right?” His voice caught a bit on. That wasn’t entirely the truth. Ma often woke up now with a dull ache in the faint memory of animal heat, the smell of horse dung, and the warm breathy sounds of horses. Not to mention the hypnotic sound of hooves.

Zhu said nothing until they had reached the glass door Ma had propped open. He paused for a moment.

“Win the bet and then you’ll see.”

**Author's Note:**

> Some Chinese vocabulary:
> 
> 马 or Mǎ - horse
> 
> Xiangqi - Chinese chess game played with wooden pieces
> 
> Jiuweihu - fox spirit or nine-tailed fox


End file.
